Beijing 2008 was the last Olympics the Super Falcons featured in and after a 16-year wait, the Nigerian side will make a comeback.

The Super Falcons of Nigeria qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris following a 1-0 victory on aggregate against rivals South Africa, despite a 0-0 second-leg draw in Pretoria on Tuesday, April 9, 2024.

The Randy Waldrum-led side dominated the first half of the encounter and saw out a South African attack that came alive in the second half.

The Super Falcons, who were quarter-finalists at last year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup, have now qualified for the women’s football event at the Olympics for the first time in 16 years, courtesy of Rasheedat Ajibade’s 43rd-minute penalty in the first leg and a dogged display in Pretoria.

The Nigerian side has only featured in the Olympics on three occasions in 2000, 2004 and 2008, having lost in the third round of the Olympics qualifiers in 2016 (Rio, Brazil) to Equatorial Guinea and 2020(Tokyo, Japan) to Ivory Coast.

The Super Falcons have been placed in group C and will battle it out with Brazil, Japan and Spain when the competition kickstarts on Friday, July 26 and would hope to be among the victors when it ends on Saturday, August 11, 2024.

The women’s tournament will commence on Thursday, July 25, one day before the Olympic Games opening ceremony, and conclude with the final in Paris on Friday, August 10, 2024.

The top two teams in each group will qualify for the last quarterfinals, along with the two best third-placed sides.

Full Group

Group A: France, Canada, Colombia, New Zealand

Group B: USA, Germany, Australia, (Morocco or Zambia)

Group C: Spain, Japan, Brazil, Nigeria