Full name Nicolaas Jacobs Sport Wrestling Nationality Namibia Style Freestyle | Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) Name Nico Jacobs Weight 96 kg (212 lb) | |
Born 26 January 1981 (age 43) ( 1981-01-26 ) Pretoria, South Africa | ||
Nicolaas "Nico" Jacobs (born January 26, 1981 in Pretoria, South Africa) 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 in Abuja, Nigeria, and later became the first Namibian wrestler in history to compete at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. A graduate at the University of Calgary in Canada, 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 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, with a remarkable milestone. Earlier in the process, he placed sixth in the 97-kg division at the 2003 World Wrestling Championships in New York City, New York, United States, 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.