Can Africa improve its medal haul in Rio?

Will African athletes perform better than they did in London 2012 where the number of medals received by the continent was 34?

In Beijing 2008, summer Olympics , the total number of medals received by African athletes was 40 , this number reduced to 34 in London .

The challenge started with the opening of the Rio Olympic Games on Saturday.

So far,Africa has only 2 medals.But can the continent win more medals to beat the last number of 34?

From an all time African medal table , Kenya , South Africa and Ethiopia are top three medal recipients with total medal haul of 86, 76, 45 respectively.

• Kenya 86
• South Africa 76
• Ethiopia 45
• Egypt 26
• Morocco 22
• Algeria 15
• Nigeria 23
• Zimbabwe 8
• Tunisia 10
• Cameroon 5

Africa participated for the first time in the Olympics in 1904, with two South African athletes.

On this day in history in 1957 Althena Gibson became the first African American to win Wimbledon. She is a great… https://t.co/K5v5aBLedR

— Special Olympics NY (@SONYinfo) July 6, 2016

Today , the number of participants has increased and their performance inspires respect within the Olympic family.

Over time, many of its worthy representatives have brought honour to the continent by highlighting their talent.

Among them, Nigerian table tennis player, Segun Toriola.

Take a bow #SegunToriola! Nigerian table tennis star to become first African to compete in seven #Olympics https://t.co/8KKKUsXP3A

— Kwesé Sports (@kwesesports) July 26, 2016

Segun Toriola, became the first African, all sports combined, to have attended the Olympic Games seven times.

His first participation dates back in the year 1992 in Barcelona ,when he was 17 years old. He was also in Atlanta (1996), Sydney (2000), Athens (2004), Beijing (2008) and London (2012).Toriola is now 41 years old.