Listicles Sports

Five Athletes You Never Knew Were Africans

In a competitive world of athletes, countries are always ready to support their own without reservation. There is hardly a year that we don’t see these men and women on different tracks around the world.  Sometimes, they win big and sometimes they lose like sportsmen.  However, there is always one thing that they may never lose no matter how much they try, their identities. Do you know that most of the great athletes you see on most competition emerging as champions are actually from Africa even though they don’t represent Africa countries? We often see these athletes win medals and may not have realized that they are proudly from Africa.  The list of these athletes is endless and we have listed five of them:

Yasemin Can

Yasemin Can  is from Kenya but she has never represented her country professionally.  She is long distance runner who represents Turkey. Can has won a lot of awards and races around the world for Turkey. She is good and doesn’t disappoint on the track. Can has a special way of winning a race yet, she is humble and doesn’t court controversy like some athletes who have reached the top.


Femi Seun Ogunode

Femi Seun Ogunode is a Nigerian-born athlete who represents Qatar. Currently, Ogunode is the 100 m recorder holder at 9.91 in Qatar.   He has done amazingly great in World Championships races and other races. In 2014, he won the 100m at the Asian Athletics Championship race. Today, Ogunode has become a household name in the athletic world especially in the Middle Eastern country.

Tiffany Porter

Nigeria  may not be doing amazingly great when it comes to sprint racing but it has got a lot of its citizens representing other countries. Tiffany Porter is one of those Nigerians who represents the United Kingdom. She was the first British woman to win the 100m hurdles at the European Championships. Porter went ahead to win Sliver at the Commonwealth Games.

Bernard Kipchirchir Lagat 

Lagat is from Kapsabet , Kenya.  He represented  Kenya before switching his allegiance to the United States of America.  Lagat became the second fastest runner of all time in 1500m race. The athlete is good at what he does and is a five time Olympian and proudly a thirteen-time medalist in the Olympic and World Championships.

 


Morolake Akinosun

Morolake represents the United States of America even though she is originally from Nigeria. In 2016, she represented the US at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Moralake won gold in 2015 at the  Pan-American Games in Toronto.  In 2013, she won gold at the USA Junior Championships .

There are other athletes who represent other countries that we may not have listed here. Some of these athletes are world champions and have always drawn the attention of the media wherever they are seen.  You can add to our list by making others know who are Africans who are representing other countries around the world as athletes.

We are sure that the list will be endless by the time all of you comment below. What do you think of our list?