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| Full name | Baraladei Daniel Igali | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality |  Nigeria  Canada | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | February 3, 1974 Eniwari, Bayelsa State, Nigeria | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Baraladei Daniel Igali (born February 3, 1974) is a Nigerian-Canadian wrestler. He won Canada's first ever Olympic gold medal in wrestling at the 2000 Summer Olympics and remains Canada's only male Olympic gold medalist in wrestling.
As captain of the Nigerian wrestling team, Igali came to Canada to compete in the 1994 Commonwealth Games. He remained in the country while seeking refugee status due to political unrest in Nigeria. He acquired citizenship in 1998. [1]
Igali enrolled at Douglas College before transferring to Simon Fraser University to study criminology. He represented SFU from 1997 to 1999, winning three straight NAIA Championships and finishing with a 116-0 record in collegiate wrestling. [1] [2] [3] Additionally, Igali earned All-American honours three times and the two Gorriaran Awards (1997, 1999) for most pins in the least total time. [3] [4] [5]
At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Igali won a gold medal for men's 69 kg freestyle wrestling. At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Igali won a gold medal in the Men's 74 kg freestyle wrestling. In 2007, Igali was inducted into the Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. [6] He was later inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 2012. [7]
His wrestling career is highlighted in a television documentary directed by Joel Gordon called, "Wrestling with Destiny: The Life and Times of Daniel Igali". The biographical documentary film was broadcast by CBC Television in 2004 as an episode of the Life and Times TV series. [8]
Igali became president of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation, creating the highest morale athletes for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and highest medal hopefuls for Nigeria at the Games. The Nigerian team has otherwise lacklustre morale outside of wrestling. [9] In September 2022, Igali was elected as a board member of UWW (United World Wrestling) for a five year term. [10]
On February 10, 2005, Igali announced that he would seek nomination as a candidate in Surrey-Newton for the British Columbia Liberal Party in the 2005 provincial election in British Columbia. He won the nomination, but was defeated by New Democrat opponent Harry Bains in the election.
He completed a Master of Arts degree in criminology at Simon Fraser University, having previously attended Douglas College. While working on his master's degree, he trained at SFU and liked to help coach. Igali is currently[ when? ] the coach of the Nigerian National Wrestling Team. [11]
In November 2006 Igali was injured during a violent robbery while in Nigeria. [12] In 2020, he was the president of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation. [13] He is a two-term member of the Bayelsa State assembly and also its sports commissioner. [14] [15]
In 2012, Igali was one of the recipients of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards presented by Canadian Immigrant Magazine. [16]
Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby, Surrey, and Vancouver. The 170-hectare (420-acre) main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from downtown Vancouver, was established in 1965 and comprises more than 30,000 students and 160,000 alumni. The university was created in an effort to expand higher education across Canada.
Guivi "Gia" Sissaouri is a Georgian-Canadian former freestyle wrestler.
The SFU Red Leafs or Simon Fraser Red Leafs teams represent Simon Fraser University (SFU), which is located in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. The Red Leafs are members of NCAA Division II and are the only Canadian university affiliated with the U.S.-based National Collegiate Athletic Association. The teams previously used the nicknames "Clan" and "Clansmen," which were used as a tribute to the Scottish heritage of the university's namesake, Simon Fraser. The names were retired in 2020 due to the negative connotation surrounding those terms. In September 2022, the updated nickname "Red Leafs" was announced.
United World Wrestling (UWW) is the international governing body for the sport of amateur wrestling; its duties include overseeing wrestling at the World Championships and Olympics. It presides over international competitions for various forms of wrestling, including Greco-Roman, Freestyle, Grappling, and others. The flagship event of UWW is the Wrestling World Championships.
Clarissa Kyoko Mei Ling Chun (陳美玲) is the head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes Women's wrestling program, formerly, the USA Wrestling assistant National coach and an American Olympic women's freestyle 48 kg (105.5 lbs) wrestler. Chun was the first female wrestler from Hawaii to win a medal at the Olympics. She was inducted into the 2018 Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame and 2022 National Wrestling Hall of Fame as a Distinguished Member.
Carol Huynh is a retired Canadian freestyle wrestler. Huynh was the first gold medalist for Canada in women's wrestling and was the first gold medallist for Canada at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She is also the 2010 Commonwealth Games and two time Pan American Games champion. She has also achieved success at the world championships where Huynh has totaled one silver and three bronze medals. Huynh is also an eleven time national champion. Following the 2012 Olympics, Huynh retired from competition and started coaching the University of Calgary Dinos wrestling team. Huynh was elected to the United World Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2013. In early 2015 she was selected as a United World Wrestling Super 8 Ambassador for the global campaign focusing on the development of women in wrestling and has also served as the Chair of the United World Wrestling Athletes Commission from 2013 to 2017. As of 2020 she is the current coach of Wrestling Canada's Next Gen team based in Calgary.
Greg Edgelow is a retired freestyle wrestler from Canada and is a nationally certified Wrestling Coach and Aboriginal Coach with Cree Ancestral Heritage and European mix. In 2018, Greg was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame, Indigenous Gallery. He represented Canada at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain and won a bronze medal at the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle, two bronze medals at the 1991 Pan American Games in Havana, Cuba and a gold medal at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria. He is an eight-time Canadian senior champion. Edgelow is the only Canadian to win a medal in wrestling (bronze) at the Goodwill Games ever. He is also the only Canadian wrestler to win four separate consecutive senior weight classes in Freestyle. His last national title was in 1998, the same year that he represented Canada at the World Championships in Tehran, Iran.
Robert “Bob” Molle is a Canadian author, speaker and former Olympic freestyle wrestler and professional Canadian Football League (CFL) player.
Christopher Rinke is a Canadian former freestyle wrestler. He won a bronze medal in the men's freestyle middleweight (82 kg) category at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Collegiately he wrestled for Simon Fraser University, where he was national champion and two-time NAIA All-American.
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The sport of wrestling has been practiced in Canada for more than a century, with the first amateur wrestling championships being held at Toronto's Argonaut Rowing Club in 1901. The sport continued to grow during the 20th century and by 1969, the Canadian Amateur Wrestling Association was formed. Today the same organization is called Wrestling Canada Lutte, and is the national governing body for Olympic style wrestling in Canada. The organization's purpose is to encourage and develop the widest participation and highest proficiency in Olympic wrestling in Canada.
Blessing Oborududu is a Nigerian freestyle wrestler. She is currently ranked as the world number two woman wrestler and also the first wrestler to win an Olympic medal representing Nigeria at the Olympics. She is also a twelve-time African champion from 2010 to 2023.
Wilson Siewari is an amateur Nigerian freestyle wrestler, who played for the men's super heavyweight category. He is a two-time medalist at the All-Africa Games, and trains under his personal and head coach Daniel Igali, a former Nigerian-born Canadian wrestler who won gold medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, and at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
Stacie Anaka is a Canadian freestyle wrestler from Coquitlam, British Columbia. She competes in the 67 kg division. Anaka also serves as an assistant coach for women's wrestling at Simon Fraser University. In 2007, she received the Tom Longboat Award for her outstanding contributions to sports by the Aboriginal Sport Circle.
Erica Elizabeth Wiebe is a wrestler competing for Canada. She is an Olympic champion in women's 75 kg freestyle, winning gold at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She was the third Canadian champion ever in wrestling at the Olympics, and second Canadian woman to win gold after Carol Huynh. Wiebe is also the current Commonwealth Games champion in the same weight class, having won the gold medal at the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the Gold Coast, respectively.
Odunayo Folasade Adekuoroye is a Nigerian freestyle wrestler. She competed in the women's freestyle 53 kg event at the 2014 Commonwealth Games where she won a gold medal and at the 2015 World Wrestling Championships where she won a bronze medal. She won the silver medal at the women's freestyle 55 kilograms 2017 World Wrestling Championships.
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John Melling is a male British former wrestler.
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