LAUSANNE, February 27, 2024 – “I’m alone in my sled but I’m doing it for all of us,” Nigeria’s Simidele Adeagbo said, as she made history last weekend at the ongoing 2024 IBSF World Championships in Winterberg, Germany. On February 24, Adeagbo became the first athlete to represent Africa in bobsleigh at the Worlds.
A PRIVILEGE “It’s a privilege, but there is also pressure. I’m representing more than a billion people across the continent of Africa,” she said. “That is a huge provilege but with that comes a little bit of pressure because I want to make them proud. But ultimately, all I can do is my best and I feel that I did that today and I hope everyone across Africa, and the world, is proud of me.”
TOP 20 Adeagbo finished 20th in her debut world championships with a total of 3:58.81 from four runs in the women’s monobob event. German bobsleigh pilot Laura Nolte successfully defended her world title at her home track. Elana Meyers Taylor from the USA took the silver and Nolte’s compatriot Lisa Buckwitz settled for bronze.
GOLDEN MOMENT To mark what she described as a “golden moment”, Adeagbo wore gold shoes designed with the silhouette portrait of a woman in the shape of the African continent. “I’m representing the women of Africa,” she explained. “I’m alone in my sled but I’m doing it for all of us and so this is really a celebration of this amazing opportunity to break this barrier for the whole continent and represent everyone so that’s what this is about: I’m celebrating the golden moment.”
WINTER JOURNEY Adeagbo, who had a memorable college career as a triple jumper at the University of Kentucky, swapped sand for ice in 2017 and in 2018, at 36 years old, became the first Nigerian to compete at a Winter Olympics at the PyeongChang Games. There she made history as the first black female Olympian in the sport of skeleton. She has not looked back since then, subsequently taking up the monobob (one-person bobsled) in February 2020 and coming close to qualifying for the Beijing 2022 Games – she missed out on automatic qualification – by just one spot – for the inaugural monobob event at the Games.
“When monobob was first introduced, I thought it could be a really cool way to kind of build on my driving, and it would help my skeleton as well. As I got more into monobob I really started liking the fact that you can see a lot more and I like the control that you have with a bobsled so I’ve just enjoyed it.
“It’s really hard to make those small little movements in skeleton to control the sled with your body but in bobsled you can use your hands but you still have to be soft – we’re working on that – those little movements just guiding the sled and not over-steering.”
ANOTHER FIRST In her quest to book a ticket to Beijing, Adeagbo became the first African, male or female, to win an international bobsleigh race in January 2022. She won the women’s monobob at the Europe Cup at Winterberg in Germany and her victory was so unexpected that there wasn’t a Nigerian flag or anthem on hand. She had to use her own flag during the medal ceremony. Adeagbo is currently in her 7th season with the Nigeria national team.
“Training is definitely different for bobsled. Bobsleigh requires a huge amount of strength. You know you are pushing a huge heavy object and skeleton the sled is much lighter so I’ve had to become a lot stronger so over the summer I’ve really worked hard to increase my strength, my power and with that comes speed as well. So yeah, I’ve had to fight really hard to gain those strengths that I didn’t have to as much in skeleton,” said Adeagbo, who has Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics on her mind.
