Simidele Adeagbo becomes Africa’s First Female Skeleton Athlete to Compete in the Winter Olympics

Nigerian Simidele Adeagbo will be the first African woman to compete in the Skeleton category of the Winter Olympics.

Adeagbo,will join the historic Nigerian bobsled team, qualified after finishing 3rd in her 5th qualifying race. Adeagbo, 36, is currently ranked 84th in the world, although she hit a skeleton sled for the first time in September 2017. She has been a quadruple US champion and triple jump record at the University of Kentucky. She healed but eventually gave up her ambition to compete at the Olympics in 2008. His ambition was revived in 2016, after hearing about a Nigerian bobsleigh team that wanted to compete at the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games in South Korea.


She told ThisDay:

I read an article about how the women had this audacious goal of becoming Africa’s first-ever bobsled team to go to the Winter Olympics. I was super inspired, and instantly thought, I wonder if I could be a part of that?
So, when I saw that, I was thinking, maybe they need a fourth person and maybe that fourth person could be me because there’s a history of track and field athletes going into bobsled.

But after asking the team if she could be the fourth member, she told them that although bobsleigh is a sport for four men, it's a sport for two women. In 2017, another opportunity arose. She saw an Instagram call for essays by the Nigerian Bobsled and Skeleton Federation in Houston, Texas. She packed her bags and went to Houston, arriving the morning of testing and participating in the evening. She received a call from the Federation weeks later, she said, asking her to come to camp in Canada.


She said:

I honestly didn’t know much about the sport, but knew that there was a lot that I could draw from my track and field background to help me succeed in it. You run as fast as you can for about 30 meters to gain momentum before you launch into or onto something.
I was able to pick up the push start very, very quickly because I already had that experience with the runway of triple jump. Where I really have the advantage is only for a very short amount of time, four or five seconds of the race. But the track is a mile long, so the race will last another 50 seconds.

Adeagbo on her Instagram shared the great news that she had qualified for the winter Olympics, writing:

Hello Pyeongchang! I successfully completed my 5th qualifying race with a 3rd place finish! I’m looking forward to representing @bsfnigeria & becoming the first female African Skeleton athlete to compete in the Winter Olympics. Dreams do come true!
Yoruba: 🎶Were loba mi se (2X)
Ohun ti mo ro wipe ko seese Were loba mi se 🎶
English Translation: He did it effortlessly for me (2X)
What I thought was impossible
He did it effortlessly for me
THANK YOU JESUS for this amazing blessing & plan for my life! 🙏🏾#historyinthemaking#breakingbarriers#watchmework 📸@candicewardphotography

Simidele Adeagbo also shared a video, captioning it: “What an epic day! ❤️🇳🇬☠️🔥💃🏿”
See her posts below:




Photo Credit: simisleighs


#Africa ... spill TEA.... Easy on Shade #jaiyeorie