Our Athletes

Cynthia Ogunsemilore (60kg)
Dolapo Omole (57kg)

Cynthia Ogunsemilore hails from Bariga, a tough neighbourhood in Nigeria’s Lagos State, a hotspot for street fights and gang conflicts, most of her life was a fight of its own. At the age of 12, she began boxing, boxing was a welcome escape from her difficult upbringing and surroundings. The conditions at home were tough, sometimes desperate, but She believes the sport, as cliché as it may sound, saved her. At the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Cynthia did little to prove herself as one of her nation’s rising talents earning a bronze medal. After winning the Trials in Nigeria, Cynthia won a place in Paris 2024 by winning the gold medal at 60kg, She is the second Nigerian woman to earn a qualification spot for an Olympics, after Edith Ogoke at London 2012.

Dolapo started boxing at 6 years after watching other boxers in his neighbourhood in Ojo about 37 km west of Lagos. He longed to start boxing, but his parents did not support his enthusiasm for the sport until he started winning competitions at state and national level. This did not come without challenges as he had to make sacrifices for boxing. Dolapo passed The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) the Nigerian entrance examination board for tertiary-level three times but opted to pursue his love of boxing rather than the academic route which caused a lot of resistance from his parents. The boxing path has proven to be successful for Dolapo, he has gone on to be an outstanding amateur winning gold at the 2020 and 2022 Nigerian National Sports Festival, bronze at the 2023 African Boxing Championships and qualifying for Paris 2024 by winning Gold at the African qualifiers in Senegal.

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