The days of anonymity are over for Olympic wrestling gold medal winner Daniel Igali. He's a hero in two countries.
The 26-year-old was in his native Nigeria yesterday when he was announced as the winner of the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada's top athlete in 2000. Though he's still closely tied to his parents and 20 siblings in his homeland, it was his lavishly demonstrative love of Canada when he captured the country's first Olympic wrestling gold in Sydney that captivated Canadians.
When he won the the title in the 69-kilogram freestyle event over Russian Arsen Gitinov, he spread out Canada's Maple Leaf flag on the wrestling mat, then kneeled to kiss it. He ran a lap around it to indicate symbolically that his "journey had come full circle."
Yesterday, in voting by sports editors of Toronto newspapers and national media outlets, the athlete from a sport that gets no attention outside the Olympics discovered that his journey had put him in a league with professional athletes who live in the limelight.
The five other Marsh finalists were golfer Lorie Kane, hockey players Chris Pronger of St. Louis and Scott Stevens of New Jersey, golfer Mike Weir and Olympic triathlon winner Simon Whitfield. Also considered were wheelchair racer Jeff Adams, Dallas Mavericks guard Steve Nash, Ironman triathlete Peter Reid and Paralympic swimmer Jessica Sloan.
It was a long and emotional trek to the Olympic podium for Igali, beginning in the dirt-poor Nigerian village of Eriwani. Within the Ijaw tribe, Daniel's accountant father had four wives, and Daniel was one of 21 children.
"We slept four to a bed and three or four people ate off the same plate," he said in a Globe and Mail interview last year when he was announced as the outstanding male athlete at the Canadian Sport Awards, presented by the Ottawa-based Spirit of Sport Foundation.
"Even when I got older and went to sport dinners, it felt strange for me to have a plate put down in front of me, all for myself."
With the large number of brothers and sisters, Daniel learned wrestling as both an Ijaw cultural pursuit and as a way of getting to the front of the chow line.
He represented Nigeria at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria and stayed behind when the Games were over. He lived with the family of a teacher in Richmond, B.C., Maureen Methany, a woman he considered his adoptive mother.
He became a Canadian citizen in 1998 and studied criminology at Simon Fraser University. Methany supported his training and education and had planned to go with him to the 1999 world championships in Turkey and the Sydney Olympics.
But she fell gravely ill with cancer just before the 1999 world championships, and Igali went off to fight, hoping he could come home with a medal for her. It was only three weeks after orthoscopic surgery on a torn meniscus in his left knee that he wrestled for gold in Turkey. He flew back immediately to put the medal into the hands of his adoptive mom. She died a few days later.
He said in Sydney that when he lay down for a nap before his championship bout, he saw Methany in his dream, and they sat together and talked. "And when I woke up for the match, I never felt better or stronger in my life," he said.
He has since signed a long-term endorsement deal with General Mills' Cheerios brand and will be involved in programs aimed to get youngsters active and healthy.
As an Olympic athlete, he's not going to become a millionaire from his sport, but there's enough support there to allow him to be a full-time wrestler and role model, close to a six-figure package.
"But folks from home, they think of the American pro athletes who have millions," he said. "I get letters constantly, from friends who think I can send them cars, build them houses. If try to I explain, it's like flogging a dead horse."
The Lou Marsh award was voted on by Steve Tustin and Garth Woolsey of The Toronto Star, Steve McAllister of The Globe and Mail, Neil A. Campbell of Globeandmail.com, Scott Morrison of The Toronto Sun, Rod Black of CTV, Brian Williams of the CBC, Martine Gaillard of Headline Sports and Neil Davidson of The Canadian Press. The selection committee was chaired by veteran Olympian Silken Laumann, a winner of the award in 1991.
Internet poll
Who is most deserving of Canada's athlete of the year honours?
Daniel Igali 22% Lorie Kane 20% Mike Weir 30% Simon Whitfield 21% Scott Stevens 3% Chris Pronger 4%
Number of people polled: 228