The International Olympic Committee (IOC), has highlighted Segun Torial’s achievement, as the most decorated table tennis player in Africa.
In an article published on their website, Toriola was described as a record-breaking athlete and the most successful tennis star on the continent.
Toriola has featured in every Olympics since he made his debut in Barcelona 1992. He has gone on to appear in seven editions and is expected to play next month in Rio, Brazil.
“Seven is the number of athletes who have appeared at seven Olympic Games or more; the outright record holder being Canadian show jumper Ian Millar, who made ten appearances between Munich 1972 and London 2012,” IOC said.
“Figuring large among the group of evergreen performers with seven Games to their name is legendary Jamaican sprinter Merlene Ottey, while this most select club is about to welcome a new member in Nigerian table tennis player Toriola, who booked his place at Rio 2016 in February.
It adds: “Toriola was only 18 when he made his Olympic debut at Barcelona 1992, teaming up in the doubles with Oluyomi Bankole.
The Nigerian pair scored a solitary win in the group phase, over Cuba’s Ruben Arado and Santiago Roque.
“They made their first-round exits in both the singles and the doubles at the Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000. But Toriola reached the third round of the singles at Athens 2004.
“In Beijing four years later, he produced the best performance of his lengthy Olympic career to date, scoring back-to-back wins over former world No1s David Zhuang of the U.S., and Belgium’s Jean-Michel Saive, and then taking the Republic of Korea’s Oh Sangeun to a seventh set. At the London 2012, aged 37, Toriola went out in the second round to Sweden’s five-time world champion, Jörgen Persson.”
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