The 26-year-old, four-time NCAA All American and triple jump record holder for the University of Kentucky had been training since she was in high school to make it to the Olympics.
But she fell short — by eight inches — for the last time. So, she hung up her track spikes, put away her training book and said she was “just going to be a regular person who worked and stayed in shape.” That lasted for nearly 10 years.
The now 36-year-old Nigerian athlete is just one race away from qualifying for PyeongChang in the sport of skeleton (a sliding sport in which one person rides prone in a small sled down a frozen track at speeds of more than 75 mph). If she makes it, she’ll be the first female skeleton athlete from Africa to qualify for the Olympics.
Adeagbo is currently ranked 84th in the world. In order to qualify in skeleton for PyeongChang, an athlete has to be the top athlete in the sport from their country and to have competed in five races on three different tracks in the last two seasons. But because Adeagbo started the sport this year, that means that this requirement needs to be met this season. She completed her first-ever race on November 12, and so far, she’s checked all these boxes with the exception of the final race, which will happen on January 11, 2017, in Lake Placid, New York. Qualifiers will be announced from January 14 to 16. If she gets it, she’ll join the three Nigerian women bobsledders who recently became the first athletes from Africa to qualify for the Olympics in the sport, and Nigeria will have its biggest-ever Winter Olympics representation in PyeongChang.
For the full story visit news.nike.com/news/simidele-adeagbo-african-skeleton-athlete
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