Leadway Assurance has described the Nigerian contingent to the just-concluded 2019 Special Olympics World Games in Abu Dhabi as true heroes who deserve to be celebrated by the nation at large.

Speaking during a reception hosted in Lagos by the Special Olympics Nigeria for the team and various sponsors that made the team’s participation at the Abu Dhabi event possible, Ademola Ayodabo who represented Leadway Assurance’s head of Corporate Communications, Olubunmi Adeleye, said the team’s total haul of sixty-three individual medals in eight sporting activities was a testament to the irrepressible Nigerian spirit. He noted that Leadway Assurance was proud to be associated with the great success story of the team both as a sponsor and also for being represented on the Board of Special Olympics Nigeria. He also promised that the company was committed to sustaining its CSR support for Special Olympics Nigeria.

Earlier in his welcome remarks, Victor Osibodu, chairman, Special Olympics Nigeria, said the Nigerian contingent to the Games earned global respect for their “magnificent achievements” in Abu Dhabi.

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“I’m proud to inform you that we returned home with 63 medals, 32 gold, 21 silver, and 10 bronze medals. These numbers may sound odd but in Special Olympics we celebrate individual athletes and not the event. Therefore, the medals are not counted as per sport but as per athletes,”Osibodu stated.

He commended the sponsors, coaches, caregivers and the medical personnel for their dedication and hard work in ensuring the team was in top shape for the Games.

A breakdown of the Special Olympics team’s 63 individual medal haul shows that the athletes won four gold and two bronze medals in athletics, two gold, seven silver and two bronze in badminton, 10 silver medals in Unified Basketball, one gold in cycling, 12 gold in Unified Football, three silver and one bronze in table tennis, one gold, one silver and five bronze in swimming, and 12 gold in Unified Volleyball, totaling 63 individual medals in eight sporting activities.

Modestus Anaesoronye is a leading Nigerian financial journalist with over two decades of experience reporting on the insurance and pension sectors across Nigeria and West Africa. He has held key editorial positions at major national media outlets, including The Comet, The Nation, and Financial Standard, and currently serves as a Senior Financial Analyst at BusinessDay Media Ltd. A widely travelled reporter, he has covered industry developments in more than 14 countries across Africa and Asia. Anaesoronye is a multiple award-winning journalist, honoured several times as Insurance Journalist of the Year and Pension Journalist of the Year by recognised industry bodies, including PensionScope and the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp), among others.

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