Daniel Igali
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| Olympic medal record | |||
| Men's freestyle wrestling | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 2000 Sydney | Lightweight (69 kg) | |
Baraladei Daniel Igali (born February 3, 1974 in Eniwari, Bayelsa State, Nigeria) is a Canadian freestyle wrestler.
Contents |
[edit] Wrestling career
As captain of the Nigerian wrestling team he came to Canada to compete in the 1994 Commonwealth Games. He remained in the country while seeking refugee status due to political unrest in Nigeria. He acquired citizenship in 1998.
In Canada, Igali won 116 consecutive matches wrestling at Simon Fraser University from 1997 to 1999. He placed fourth at the 1998 world championships. He finished second at the 1998 World Cup and won a bronze medal at the 1999 Pan American Games.
Wrestling at 69 kg, Igali won the world title in 1999 with a gold medal at the 1999 championships in Ankara, Turkey, and won the Norton Crowe Award as Canada's top male amateur athlete that year. He followed that with a gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Igali was voted the Lou Marsh Trophy winner as Canada's top athlete of 2000. He also repeated as the Norton Crowe Award winner. Moving up to 74 kg, Igali won the gold medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and finished in the semi-finals in the 2004 Summer Olympics. He was inducted into the Canada's Sports Hall of Fame on October 25, 2007.
[edit] Politics
On February 10, 2005, Igali announced that he would seek nomination as a candidate in Surrey-Newton for the British Columbia Liberal Party in the 2005 provincial election in British Columbia. He won the nomination, but was defeated by New Democrat opponent Harry Bains in the election. The election campaign featured a particularly ugly incident in the final weekend, with the appearance of a set of pamphlets encouraging people to vote "pretty brown" (Bains is Indo-Canadian) instead of "ugly black", which inevitably resulted in conflicting allegations about the source thereof.
[edit] Personal
He is currently a Master of Arts candidate in the criminology department at Simon Fraser University, having previously attended Douglas College. He still trains at SFU and likes to help coach.
In November 2006 Igali was injured during a violent robbery while in Nigeria.[1]
[edit] External links
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Caroline Brunet |
Lou Marsh Trophy winner 2000 |
Succeeded by Jamie Salé & David Pelletier |
