Issake Dabore

At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, Dabore competed in the men's welterweight competition.^[1] By doing so, he became the first person from Niger to compete at an Olympics.^[3] Dabore was the only athlete from Niger who competed at the games.^[4] In his competition, Dabore was drawn against Hong Tshun Fu of Taiwan in the first round.^[1] Dabore won the fight due to a technical knockout.^[1] In the second round, in which sixteen athletes competed in, Dabore was drawn against and beat Hans-Erik Pedersen of Denmark.^[1] Dabore again won the fight due to a technical knockout.^[1] In the quarterfinals held on 19 October 1964, Dabore was drawn against Pertti Purhonen who had defeated Australian Frank Roberts and Czechoslovak Bohumil Němeček to reach the quarterfinal stage.^[1] Purhonen won the fight 3–2 and, therefore, Dabore was eliminated.^[1] The competition was eventually won by Marian Kasprzyk of Poland.^[5]

At the 1965 All-Africa Games in Brazzaville, Dabore participated in the welterweight competition. He won the silver medal, losing in the final to Joseph Bessala of Cameroon.^[6]

At the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico, Dabore competed in the men's light-welterweight competition.^[1] He was one of two Nigeriens who competed at the games, with fellow male boxer Dary Dasuda the other.^[7] In the second round of his competition (he had a bye in the first),^[1][8] Dabore was drawn against José Marín of Costa Rica.^[1] Dabore won the fight 5–0 and he therefore progressed to the third round.^[1] In the third round, Dabore lost 4–1 to Yevgeny Frolov of the Soviet Union.^[1] Dabore was, therefore, eliminated from the competition; a competition that was eventually won by Jerzy Kulej of Poland.^[9]

At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, Dabore competed in the men's light-welterweight competition.^[1] Dabore was one of four athletes from Niger who competed at the 1972 games.^[10] The other three athletes; Mayaki Seydou, Harouna Lago and Issoufou Habou; were all also boxers.^[10] Dabore carried the Nigerien flag in the opening ceremony.^[3] In the first round of his competition, Dabore fought against Odartey Lawson of Ghana.^[10] Dabore beat Lawson due to a technical knockout.^[10] In the second round, Dabore beat South Korean Park Tai-Shik, again due to a technical knockout.^[10] In the quarterfinals, Dabore faced Kyoji Shinohara of Japan.^[10] Dabore won the fight 3–2 to progress to the semi-finals.^[10] In his semi-final, Dabore faced Bulgarian Angel Angelov.^[10] Angelov won the fight 5–0 and, therefore, Dabore was eliminated.^[10] Dabore, along with the other loser in the semi-finals, Zvonimir Vujin of Yugoslavia, won a bronze medal.^[11] Dabore's medal was Niger's first ever Olympic medal.^[12] As of 2016, only one other Nigerien athlete has won an Olympic medal.^[12] That was Abdoul Razak Issoufou, who won a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Taekwondo.^[12]

At the 1973 All-Africa Games in Lagos, Dabore participated in the light-welterweight competition. He won the silver medal, losing in the final to Obisia Nwankpa of Nigeria.^[13]