Daniel Igali

Wrestling career

As captain of the Nigerian wrestling team, Igali 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.

Igali enrolled at Douglas College before transferring to Simon Fraser University to study criminology. He represented SFU from 1997 to 1999, winning three straight NAIA Championships and finishing with a 116-0 record in collegiate wrestling. Additionally, Igali earned All-American honours three times and the two Gorriaran Awards (1997, 1999) for most pins in the least total time.

At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Igali won a gold medal for men's 69 kg freestyle wrestling. At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Igali won a gold medal in the Men's 74 kg freestyle wrestling. In 2007, Igali was inducted into the Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. He was later inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 2012.

His wrestling career is highlighted in a television documentary directed by Joel Gordon called, "Wrestling with Destiny: The Life and Times of Daniel Igali". The biographical documentary film was broadcast by CBC Television in 2004 as an episode of the Life and Times TV series.

Igali became the first elected president of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation in 2013, creating the highest morale athletes for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and highest medal hopefuls for Nigeria at the Games. The Nigerian team has otherwise lacklustre morale outside of wrestling. In September 2022, Igali was elected as a board member of UWW (United World Wrestling) for a five year term.

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.

Personal

He completed a Master of Arts degree in criminology at Simon Fraser University, having previously attended Douglas College. While working on his master's degree, he trained at SFU and liked to help coach. Igali is currently the coach of the Nigerian National Wrestling Team.

In November 2006 Igali was injured during a violent robbery while in Nigeria. In 2020, he was the president of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation. He is a two-term member of the Bayelsa State assembly and also its sports commissioner.

In 2012, Igali was one of the recipients of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards presented by Canadian Immigrant Magazine.

References

References

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3. (2009-03-09). "CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY".
4. "Hall of Fame - Daniel Igali".
5. "Manuel Gorriaran".
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7. (June 12, 2012). "Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame Inductees Announced".
8. "A teacher must grapple with the idea of playing a villain".
9. Afrosport. (4 April 2024). "Daniel Igali: Canada's Olympic gold medallist redefining wrestling in Nigeria". Afrosport – AfrosportNow.
10. Segun Odegbami. (3 March 2018). "Nigerian heroes of the Winter Olympics". The Guardian – Nigeria.
11. (10 September 2022). "Olympic champion Igali among seven elected to UWW Bureau".
12. "TheStar.com - Beijing Olympics 2008".
13. link. (2016-03-24)
14. (26 March 2020). "Nigeria welcomes Olympics delay, but financial fallout worries athletes".
15. (18 August 2019). "DANIEL IGALI: My Life in the Ring, Parliament and Back in the Ring".
16. (14 September 2020). "Igali rolls out plans for sports development in Bayelsa".
17. "Canada's Top 25 Immigrants 2012".