Head Coach of Nigeria’s female basketball team, Rena Wakama has been named the best coach of the women’s Olympic basketball tournament for her history-making feats.
The 32-year-old was recognised by FIBA and the Olympic organisers for leading D’Tigress to the tournament quarter-finals for the first time in its history.
D’Tigress started the tournament on a winning streak by defeating Australia before pulling off a shocking win over fifth-ranked Canada in the final group game to seal a spot in the knockout stage despite being tagged ‘underdogs’.
They will become the first African country to reach the last eight of the Olympic basketball tournament, both male and female.
In a blog post on its website, FIBA praised the D’tigress team for putting up ‘the most impactful performance’ by an African team in history at the Olympic Basketball Tournaments.
Wakama was also hailed for being “one of the main drivers of Nigeria’s unprecedented success” at the Olympics.
“Nigeria made everyone sit up and take notice by beating Australia on opening day and that was the first time they had won a Group phase game. A few days later and Nigeria stunned Canada to become the first African team to take two wins at the Games, once again their tenacious defense providing the platform for success”, the post reads.
Rena Wakama’s recognition as Best Coach comes despite Team Nigeria’s poor outing and failure to win a single medal at the just concluded Olympics.
This will be the eighth time that the country has failed to pick up a single medal at the Games since their first outing at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. Others include Melbourne 1956, Rome 1960, Mexico 1968, Moscow 1980, Seoul 1988, London 2012 and Paris 2024.