Celebrated Nigerian athlete, Ms Favour Ofili, has lost her bid to switch her allegiance from Nigeria to Turkey, though she can appeal this at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The move for nationality switch was blocked by the World Athletics Nationality Review Panel in a message to the Turkiye Athletics Federation (TAF).
The three-man panel noted that the 23-year-old Nigerian cannot wear the colours of Turkey because it would compromise key council imperatives, including protecting the credibility of national representative competitions and preventing the systematic recruitment of overseas athletes for Olympic representation.
In September 2025, it was confirmed that Ms Ofili had decided to dump the Green-White-Green for Turkey, but this had to be ratified by the global organisation regulating athletics.
As part of efforts to make her case easier, the Turkish government granted Ms Ofili the country’s citizenship, but this did not impress the panel, which said it observed that this was part of a strategy to recruit athletes for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the United States.
However, the committee said she’s still eligible to compete in one-day meetings in a personal or club capacity or living, training and competing in Turkey generally or elsewhere.
The Turkish sprinter competes in the 100 m, 200 m and 4×100 m relay. She is the African indoor record holder in 200 m and holds a Nigerian record (also at U20 level) over the distance with a time of 21.96 seconds, making her the first Nigerian woman in history (and second African woman) to break the 22-second barrier.
Ms Ofili is the current 150 m world record holder, having broken the world record on Saturday, May 17, 2025, at the Adidas Atlanta City Games in a time of 15.85s.
She fell out with the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) after the Paris 2024 Olympics, as she was accused of being uncontrollable after rumours of her changing her nationality surfaced online.