2024 Olympic Games: Cote d'Ivoire, Cape Verde save West Africa as Ghana, Nigeria go blank on medal table

Cote d'Ivoire and Cape Verde ended the 2024 Olympic Games as the only West African Countries to win a medal after two giants in the region, Ghana and Nigeria went blank.

Cote d'Ivoire's Cheick Sallah Cisse won bronze in Taekwondo while Cape Verde's David Pina also won bronze in the Men's Flyweight.

Cisse beat Mexico's Carlos Sansores 2-1 on the score to induct Cote d'Ivoire's name on the medal table. He defeated Jonathan Healy from the USA and Caden Cunningham from Great Britain in his quest to clinch the medal.

Cisse is not a new name at the Olympics as he won gold in the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Pina, on the other hand, lost to Uzbekistan's Hasanboy Dusmatov to settle for the Bronze. He set the record as the first Cape Verdian Olympic medalist.

While Cote d'Ivoire and Cape Verde had medals attached to their names on the table, other West African countries including, Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Togo, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Niger, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Benin all left empty-handed.

Nigeria had the most athletes, 88, at the Games and competed in the most events among all West African countries.

Kenya leads the medal table for all African countries with 11 medals, 4 gold, 2 silver and 5 bronze. Algeria, South Africa, Ethiopia, and Egypt join Kenya to complete the top five.

EE