As the Olympics Games Tokyo 2020 come to a close, time to recap the top highlights from the athletes from Africa.
After a closing ceremony filled with Japanese culture and honours for athletes, the Olympic flame was extinguished inside Japan’s National Stadium, and attention turned to the next host city: Paris. That said, here are some of the top moments from African representatives at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. You can also find the rankings of the top 10 African countries by medals below.
In Africa, Kenya and Uganda emerged as the best African representatives at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, winning a combined six gold medals, with Kenya accounting for four of the haul. The Kenyans won gold in the men and women’s marathon and added the men’s 800m and women’s 1,500m events to give them 19th place in the global rankings.
Uganda’s Peruth Chemutai became the first Ugandan woman to win an Olympic gold medal in any sport when she triumphed in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase, while Joshua Cheptegei won the men’s 5,000m to take his second medal of the games. He is also the first Ugandan in history to claim two Olympic medals after he won silver in the men’s 10,000m a week ago.
Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge defended his Olympic marathon title, becoming only the third man to win gold medals in back-to-back Games. While Faith Kipyegon from Kenya also retained her Olympic women’s 1500m title in emphatic style as she set a new Olympic record in Tokyo to finish ahead of Great Britain’s Laura Muir in second.
Team South Africa ended their Olympics campaign with just three medals – their worst return since Beijing 2008 despite taking their largest ever squad of athletes to an Olympics.
| Global Rank | Team | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | Kenya | 4 | 4 | 2 | 10 |
| 36 | Uganda | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 52 | South Africa | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 54 | Egypt | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| 56 | Ethiopia | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 58 | Tunisia | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 63 | Morocco | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 74 | Nigeria | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 77 | Namabia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 86 | Botswana | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 86 | Burkina Faso | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 86 | Côte d’Ivoire | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 86 | Ghana | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Source: Business Insider
