Chika Chukwumerije

Chika Chukwumerije in our words

Chika Chukwumerije is a professional male athlete in Nigeria born December 30, 1983 in Lagos State, he is the son of late Senator Uche Chukwumerije.

He graduated from Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) where he obtained a degree in mechanical engineering in 2005. He competed in taekwondo for three subsequent Games organized by the Nigerian University Games Association winning bronze in 2000, gold in 2002 and 2004.

He was a national champion in 2002 and obtained the award till 2011 and yet not defeated for consecutive nine years. He recorded his first continental win at the 2003 All-Africa Games winning a bronze medal in the heavyweight male category.

In the year 2004 he was qualified for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens but lost to Pascal Gentil a French taekwondo practitioner. He was a gold medalist at the 2007 All-Africa Games which qualified him to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing claiming a bronze medal.

In the year 2009, he was awarded an Outstanding Male African Olympic Player in New Jersey making him a member of World’s Taekwondo Hall of Fame.

Chukwumerije also made headway in the 2011 All-African Games claiming a silver medal in the +80Kg category. He competed in the men’s +80Kg division at the 2012 Summer Olympics although he did not make it to the finals.

That same year in the month of October Nigeria hosted the first international taekwondo championships in order to promote the Chukwumerije Sports Foundation mission of raising professional taekwondo practitioners from West Africa by exposing them to training camps, training equipment and preparing them for international tournaments.

The road to bronze in Beijing

Chika Yagazie Chukwumerije, son of the late Senator Uche Chukwumerije of Abia State, came to Beijing 2008 as African Games champion. In the men’s +80 kg he won two close bouts, lost a tight semi-final to Greece’s Alexandros Nikolaidis, and then beat Akmal Irgashev of Uzbekistan 4-3 to win Nigeria’s first and only Olympic taekwondo medal.

Engineer, Hall of Famer, mentor

An engineering graduate of FUTO, he later earned a master’s degree in operations and supply chain management from the University of Liverpool (2010). He entered the World Taekwondo Hall of Fame in 2009, competed at a third Olympics in London 2012, won Commonwealth Championships silver in 2014 and set up the Chika Chukwumerije Sports Foundation in 2012 to develop young West African fighters.