Nicolaas "Nico" Jacobs (born January 26, 1981, in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

) is a retired amateur Namibian freestyle wrestler, who competed in the men's heavyweight category. Jacobs had claimed a bronze medal in the 96-kg division at the

2003 All-Africa Games The 8th All Africa Games were 5–17 October 2003 in Abuja, Nigeria. 53 countries participated in 23 sports. The main venue was the newly constructed Abuja Stadium. The organizing committee was headed by Nigerian Amos Adamu. Venues * Moshood ...

Abuja, Nigeria Abuja () is the capital and eighth most populous city of Nigeria. Situated at the centre of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is a planned city built mainly in the 1980s based on a master plan by International Plann ...

, and later became the first Namibian wrestler in history to compete at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

. A graduate at the

University of Calgary The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, Jacobs trained for the university's wrestling team under his head coach Leigh Vierling. Jacobs qualified for the Namibian squad, as the nation's first and lone wrestler, in the men's heavyweight class (96 kg) at the

, with a remarkable milestone. Earlier in the process, he placed sixth in the 97-kg division at the

2003 World Wrestling Championships The following is the final results of the 2003 World Wrestling Championships. The Freestyle Competition was held in New York City, United States, while the Greco-Roman Competition was held in Créteil, France. Medal table Team ranking Medal su ...

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, which automatically secured him a spot for his Olympic debut. He lost two straight matches each to Kazakhstan's Islam Bairamukov with a 1–7 decision, and Azerbaijan's Rustam Aghayev, who pinned him into the mat by both an eleven-point advantage and a technical fall, in the prelim pool, finishing eighteenth overall in the final rankings.

References

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* 1981 births Living people Namibian male sport wrestlers Olympic wrestlers for Namibia Wrestlers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Pretoria University of Calgary alumni Wrestlers at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games competitors for Namibia African Games bronze medalists for Namibia African Games medalists in wrestling Competitors at the 2003 All-Africa Games 20th-century Namibian people 21st-century Namibian people {{Namibia-wrestling-bio-stub