10 Namibian athletes qualify for Rio 2016

Namibia took all 10 of these qualifiers to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, held from 5 to 21 August 2016, and came home without a medal. The biggest results came later. Marathon runner Helalia Johannes won Commonwealth gold in 2018 and world championship bronze in 2019, and boxer Jonas Junias Jonas won Commonwealth gold in 2018. Namibia’s 25-year wait for an Olympic medal ended at Tokyo 2020, when Christine Mboma won silver in the 200m. Paris 2024 produced no medals, and Los Angeles 2028 is the country’s next Summer Games.

The qualifiers, 24 days before Rio

With 24 days to go before the start of the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games, 10 Namibian athletes had qualified for the event.

According to Joan Smit, secretary-general of the Namibia National Olympic Committee, the 10 athletes who met the qualifying criteria were:

• Marathon: Helalia Johannes, Beata Naigambo, Alina Armas and Mynhardt Kawanivi
• Boxing: Jonas Junias and Mathias Hamunyela
• Cycling: Dan Craven, Vera Adrian and Michelle Vorster
• Shooting: Gaby Ahrens

The final team stayed at 10: four men and six women, competing in athletics, boxing, road cycling, mountain biking and shooting. Rio was Namibia’s seventh Summer Games in a row.

How the Namibian team did in Rio

No Namibian athlete reached the podium in Rio. Here are the results the record confirms:

Jonas and Hamunyela both qualified at the 2016 African Qualification Tournament in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Jonas also carried Namibia’s flag at the opening ceremony. During the Games he was arrested in Brazil over an alleged sexual assault in the athletes’ village, and later reporting says he was cleared of the charges.

Craven was not entered in the time trial at first. Several riders were injured in the road race and could not start, so he was invited to fill one of the empty places. He put the decision to a Twitter vote before accepting, then rode and finished last in the field.

Namibia’s Olympic medal history

At the time of Rio, Namibia had won four Olympic medals, all of them silver. That total is now five.

Namibia did not compete in 1980, as some early reports said. The country became independent in 1990 and first competed at the Olympics at Barcelona 1992.

Sprinter Frankie Fredericks won all four of the early medals, taking silver in the 100m and the 200m at both Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996. For 25 years he was Namibia’s only Olympic medallist.

Mboma was 18 when she won silver on 3 August 2021. She ran 21.81 seconds, a world under-20 record, and finished 0.28 seconds behind Elaine Thompson-Herah. That made her the first Namibian woman to win an Olympic medal.

What happened to the Rio class after 2016

Two of the Rio qualifiers had their best years after the Games.

Helalia Johannes won the marathon at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, Australia, in 2:32:40. At the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha she took bronze in 2:34:15, aged 39. It was the first medal a Namibian woman had won at the World Championships. She added Commonwealth bronze in Birmingham in 2022 and ran her fifth Olympics at Paris 2024.

Jonas Junias Jonas won 64 kg gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, beating Canada’s Thomas Blumenfeld 5-0 in the final. He qualified for Tokyo 2020 by winning the African Olympic qualifier in Dakar in February 2020.

At Paris 2024, Namibia sent just four athletes across three sports and won no medals.

FAQ

How many athletes did Namibia send to Rio 2016?

Namibia sent 10 athletes to Rio 2016: four men and six women. They competed in athletics (the marathon), boxing, road cycling, mountain biking and shooting. That was the same 10 the Namibia National Olympic Committee named as qualifiers before the Games.

Did Namibia win a medal at Rio 2016?

No. Namibia won no medals at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Its last Olympic medals at that point were Frankie Fredericks’ two silvers from Atlanta 1996, and the gap lasted until Christine Mboma’s silver at Tokyo 2020.

How many Olympic medals has Namibia won?

Namibia has won five Olympic medals, all silver. Frankie Fredericks won four in the 100m and 200m at the 1992 and 1996 Games. Christine Mboma won the fifth, a silver medal, in the women’s 200m at Tokyo 2020.

When did Namibia first compete at the Olympics?

Namibia first competed at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics, two years after independence in 1990. Claims that it first took part in 1980 are wrong. Fredericks won the country’s first medal at those 1992 Games.

What did Helalia Johannes achieve after Rio?

Johannes finished 56th in the Rio marathon, then had the best years of her career. She won Commonwealth gold in 2018 and world championship bronze in Doha in 2019, and she won Commonwealth bronze in 2022. She went on to compete at her fifth Olympics in Paris in 2024.

When is Namibia’s next Summer Olympics?

Namibia’s next Summer Games are Los Angeles 2028. At Paris 2024 the country sent four athletes and won no medals, so it is still looking for its first medal since Tokyo 2020.

Sources

• Namibia at the 2016 Summer Olympics (Wikipedia)
• Rio 2016 women’s marathon results (Olympics.com)
• Olympic Games 2016 men’s time trial results (Cyclingnews)
• Dan Craven decides to ride Rio Olympics time trial after Twitter vote (Cycling Weekly)
• Namibian boxer accused of sexual assault eliminated from Olympics (Africanews)
• Tokyo Olympic Games women’s 200m report (World Athletics)
• Namibia at the Olympics (Wikipedia)
• Johannes wins bronze at athletics world championships (The Namibian)
• Jonas wins gold at Commonwealth Games (NBC News Namibia)
• Namibia at the 2024 Summer Olympics (Wikipedia)