Mary Onyali-Omagbemi is this week's Track Beauty!
The retired Nigerian sprinter is an athletics legend. It is difficult enough to qualify for one or two Olympic Games, but Onyali-Omagbemi represented her country at the Seoul, Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney and Athens Olympics. She had also won seven All-Africa sprinting titles and two Commonwealth Games gold medals.
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| Photo from MaryOnyali.com |
Mary was part of the bronze medal-winning Nigerian 4x100m relay squad at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. Despite a doping suspension months prior to the Atlanta Olympics, Onyali-Omagbemi bucked these difficulties to land third at the 200m dash. The 1992 Nigerian 4x100m relay team was featured in the Celebrate Humanity advertisement series:
The Nigerian has personal bests of 10.97s in the 100m (1993) and 22.01 (1996) in the 200m. She still holds the Nigerian national record in the 200m dash, her best event.
Onyali-Omagbemi is considered as a pioneer in Nigerian and African women's sports. She came from a time when it was not normal for a woman take part in professional sports. Her winning ways, according to an article by the Ladybrille magazine, "opened the door for many women" to do the same.
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