Original version

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

Sporting Witness

Podcasts

Factual: History

Sport

The inside and personal story of the key moments from sporting history

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

Sporting Witness: Nigeria's Paralympic heroine

Magazines & Reviews

onye cropped.jpg

23/12/2021 GMT

Nigeria's Paralympic heroine

BBC World Service - Sporting Witness, Nigeria's Paralympic heroine

The shot-putter with dwarfism whose gold medal celebration went viral on social media.

At the 2016 Paralympics in Rio, Nigerian shotputter, Lauritta Onye, became a social media sensation thanks to her cart-wheeling gold-medal celebration dance. Onye has dwarfism and has never grown beyond four foot one, or 125 centimetres. She suffered social stigma in Nigeria and at one point ended up selling DVDs on the street in order to survive. But a taster session of Paralympic sport would transform her life. She talks to Ian Williams . 

PHOTO: Lauritta Onye competing at the Rio Paralympics (Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Sporting Witness

Nigeria's Paralympic heroine

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

About BBC World Service