Para-powerlifting legend Lucy Ejike finished fourth in the 67 kg category at the event decided in Paris on Friday, failing to win a medal for the first time in 24 years, Sports 247 reports.
The 42-year-old who started competing at the games in the Sydney 2000 edition scored a no-lift on her final attempt of 139kg to miss out on the medal zone since her journey through the ranks of the event at the Paralympics games.
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She started from the 44 kg category 24 years ago, a journey which has seen her win medals at Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016, and Tokyo 2021, winning a total of 6 medals comprising 3 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze medal, breaking and setting World Records along the way.
Her Olympic Journey
Ejike began training as a powerlifter shortly before the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, Australia. At the Sydney Games, she competed in the 44 kg weight class taking the silver medal with a lift of 102.5 kg, behind Fatma Omar of Egypt.
Four years later at the Athens Games, while competing at the same weight class, she broke the Paralympic powerlifting world record twice on the way to winning the gold medal with a lift of 127.5 kg.
At the 2008 Beijing Games, Ejike moved up one weight class and took gold in the 48 kg event. She broke the world record with her first attempt, lifting 125 kg. She broke the record again with a second lift of 130 kg but faltered while trying to lift 137.5 kg on her third attempt.
After her win in Beijing, Ejike stated that has intentions of moving up another weight to set a new world record in a third class. This led to a showdown at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London with her rival from Athens, and current 56 kg world record holder, Fatma Omar, Ejike took the lead in the first round with a lift of 135 kg but she was unable to better this attempt, while Omar bettered her record from Beijing with a final lift of 142 kg.
Despite failing to beat Omar, the two women were a class above the rest of the field, and Ejike took silver, 17 kg over bronze medalist Özlem Becerikli of Turkey.
Four years later Ejike and Omar met for the third time at a Paralympic Games, when they both entered the 2016 Games in Rio. After London, the International Paralympic Committee changed the powerlifting weight categories for both men and women, and the two competed in the women’s 61 kg division.
The year previous Mexico’s Amalia Perez had set a world record in the 61 kg with a lift of 133 kg, which Ejike surpassed with her first lift of 135 kg. Omar had failed at 133 kg on her first lift but was successful at the same weight on her second attempt.
Ejike improved her lead with her second lift, setting her second world record of the day with a weight of 138 kg. Omar responded with a final lift of 140 kg, putting Ejike into silver medal place, with her final attempt Ejike succeeded with her third world record of the day, and the gold medal when she completed a lift of 142 kg to make her a three-time gold medal winner.
Ejike was chosen as part of Nigeria’s team for the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo and won the bronze medal in the women’s 61 kg event at the 2020 Summer Paralympics held in Tokyo, Japan
