Boxer David De Pina Of Cape Verde Won The Country’s First Olympic Medal

In the boxing competition at the Paris Games, Cape Verdean boxer David De Pina won a quarterfinal match on Friday, earning his island nation’s first Olympic gold.

In its seven prior Olympic games, Cape Verde, a nation of over 600,000 people spread among ten islands more than 300 miles west of continental Africa, had never won a medal.

However, in order to guarantee at least a bronze medal in the men’s 51-kilogram class in Paris, De Pina won twice, which is a huge accomplishment for sports in his nation.

De Pina declared, “I did it for my country because we deserve it.” We are a little island nation that has never done anything like this before. This is the first tale I have ever written! I was touched by the support my nation showed me, and we are deserving of it as we had to overcome many hardships to get here.

De Pina defeated Patrick Chinyemba of Zambia on Friday night in a unique bout involving fighters from several African countries. The bronze medallist from the Commonwealth Games and African champion Chinyemba narrowly missed capturing only the third Olympic medal in the history of his much larger country.