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Simidele Adeagbo is putting Nigeria on the map again.
Over the weekend, she made history as the first African athlete to compete in Bobsleigh at the BMW IBSF World Championship in Winterburg, Germany. Nigeria also became the first African country represented in bobsleigh at a World Championships in the 100-year history of IBSF.
Bobsleigh, also known as bobsled, is a team winter sport where timed runs are made in a gravity-powered sledge down small, winding, banked, icy tracks. The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation governs bobsleigh competitions across the world (IBSF).
The Nigerian-Canadian skeleton racer competed in the 2018 Winter Olympics, where she finished 20th and became Nigeria and Africa’s first female skeleton athlete. She also made history as the first black female Olympian in the sport. More recently, in 2022, she won the women’s mono bob event in the 2022 EuroCup, becoming the first athlete from Africa to win an international sledge race.
“This weekend I will make history for Nigeria as the 1st African athlete to compete in bobsleigh at the BMW IBSF World Chams,” she wrote on her Instagram account.
This is the FIRST time ever the continent of Africa will be represented in bobsleigh at a World Champs in the 100 years since @ibsfsliding was founded. I want to take a moment to celebrate this significant barrier that took a century to break. Too often our historic contributions are not recognized, undervalued, and forgotten. So as we celebrate BHM, I’m honored to write another chapter in the new future of sport.
This first will be forever recorded in history, paving the way for greater access and inclusion in the primarily Eurocentric, male-dominated sport of bobsleigh. This historic moment is a testament to hard work and dreaming more than others think is practical As I break this barrier on the ice, through the work of the @simisleighsfoundation, I continue to break the barriers that limit women and girls’ opportunities to reach their full potential.
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Watch the golden moment below:
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