Freestyle wrestler Daniel Igali defeats Kyrgyzstan’s Arsen Gitinov to win the gold medal in the 69 kg weight class on the final day of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, wrapping the Maple Leaf flag around his shoulders and kissing the mat in gratitude of his adoptive country.
The Surrey resident first came to Canada as the captain of the Nigerian wrestling team for the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria and then applied for refugee status.
Igali acquired Canadian citizenship in 1998.
Wrestling, a sport with ancient roots in the Olympics, was dropped from the list of core sports in 2013 but the International Olympic Committee overturned the controversial decision seven months later and it has been reinstated for the 2020 Games. Both Igali and fellow B.C. gold medallist Carol Huynh pleaded their sport's case to the IOC in the fight to bring it back.
