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David Defiagbon

The Olympic Games, or Olympics, is an international multi-sport event taking place every four years which comprises of summer and winter games. Though the first ancient games were held in 776 B.C, the modern games started from 1896.The unity of the 5 continents is shown on the Olympic flag by five colorful intertwined rings of red, blue, green, yellow, and black, created by Baron Pierre de Coubertin to represent atleast one color of the participating country’s national flag.

David Dejiro Defiagbon was born on June 12th, 1970 and was a Nigerian boxer. Nicknamed as the dream, Defiagbon fought for Canada and won the Heavyweight silver medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Four years previously, when Barcelona hosted the Summer Olympics, he represented Nigeria, and was eliminated in the first round of the Light Middleweight category.

Defiagbon began his professional career that same year and won his first 21 fights against limited competition, and was a significantly undersized heavyweight although he was 6 foot 5 inches. In his first step up, he took on comebacking Oleg Maskaev, who defeated him by means of split decision. He won the Commonwealth Games in 1990 and was a Nigerian and All-African champion. He competed for Nigeria in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, reaching the quarterfinals of the light middleweight division.

He finished first at the Olympic Trials in 1996 in San Juan, Puerto Rico and first again at Thunder Bay, Canada, that same year. In Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, he, the heavyweight who left Nigeria for Halifax, had his hand raised in win, assuring him of no less than a bronze medal. He also took the silver medal losing a decision 2 to 20 to Felix Savon of Cuba in the final.

David Defiagbon with all his dedication and devotion in his play achieved many goals in his overall athletic career. He had the ability of defeating the opponent easily by just giving some extra hard work and efforts. He never lost hope in himself and always fought hard to achieve his goal. He is still remembered as one of the best athletes in the history of Olympics.

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