Nigerian Bobsled and Skeleton Athletes

From our archive

Nigeria bobsled Hall of Fame

The game/sports of bobsled and skeleton has been currently added to the sporting activities in the country, the game was brought to the limelight to Nigeria because of the representation and performance of the Nigeria team which can be seen below;

Akuoma Omeoga

The female bobsleigh athlete is the brake woman for the Nigerian team and was born on 22 June 1992 in St. Paul Minnesota where she grew up. She studied Communications, Human Resources at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA and work as a healthcare recruiter.

She is from Abia State and the youngest of four girls, and her today’s achievements started from University of Minnesota where she participated in sports and was recruited as well to the Track and Field programme of the school.

She was introduced to the sport of bobsled by Seun Adigun, who is also based in the United States of America after a chance encounter through a mutual friend and became interested in it in 2016. In the same year, she first tried bobsleigh in Houston, TX, United States of America. She is among the first athletes that represented Nigeria at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games held in Pyeongchang in the female bobsleigh category.

Ngozi Onwumere

She is from Umuchima, Imo state Nigeria but was born in Texas in the year 1992 on January 23, she grew up in Mesquite and she graduated from Mesquite High School and attended the University of Houston.

She was a sprinter who specializes in 100 meters, 200 metres, 400 metres, and 4 x 100 metres relay and has won a gold medal for Nigeria in the All African Games held in Brazzaville, Congo in 4 x 100 metres organized in 2015.

Still the same she won a gold medal for Nigeria, she also represented the country in IAAF World Relays which was held in Nassau, Bahamas.

She became interested in bobsleigh in 2016 and was approached by Seun Adigun to join her project as the brake woman. She is among the first Nigeria bobsleigh athletes to compete at the 2018 Olympic Winter Game in PyeongChang and also the flag bearer in the opening ceremony of the event.

Seun Adigun

She is one of the Nigerian female bobsleigh athletes who participated in the 2018 Olympic bobsleigh event in South Korea. She was birthed in the year 1987 and grew up in Chicago, Illinois.

As of the time of her participating in this sport she was studying at both Texas Chiropractic College and as well as the University of Houston where she is studying masters of Science in exercise health.

In the year 2010, she made the country proud by winning a medal for Nigeria at the African Athletics Championship which was held in Nairobi. She competed at the 2011 International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) World Championship held in Daegu and also represented Nigeria at the 2012 London Olympic Games as a 100m hurdler and ran for the University of Houston, Texas.

This amazing athlete took up bobsleigh in the year 2015 with her friends from athletics after watching the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. She was qualified for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games held in Pyeongchang as she represented Nigeria in the female bobsleigh event. She is the founder of Nigeria bobsled team after retiring from track and field event.

Simidele Adeagbo

A Nigerian born in Toronto, Ontario Canada and brought up in Ibadan, Nigeria and the United States; she was brought to limelight due to her participation in the 2018 Olympics skeleton which she qualified for, she was birthed in the year 1981 on the 29th of July.

She attended the University of Kentucky and was noted as the first ever Nigerian and African woman, and the first Black woman, to have participated in the sport of skeleton at the Olympics. Prior to her participation in the skeleton sports she formerly played Track & Field but retired in June 2008, she has served as a Nike body double for Serena Williams and has worked for Nike in South Africa since 2012.

She is a triple jump record holder for the University of Kentucky but developed an interest in the sports of a skeleton in 2017; after trying out for the Nigerian bobsled team in July 2017 she took up skeleton in September 2017 and made an attempt to qualify in the sports of Skeleton for the 2018 Olympics to represent Nigeria. She was sponsored by her employer, Nike. Adeagbo was noted as the first Nigerian to participate in the Winter Olympics sports which was held in 2018.