RHASIDAT ADELEKE HAS returned home as a professional athlete, forgoing her final two years of eligibility on the NCAA circuit in the United States for the opportunity to build her own schedule ahead of the Paris Olympics along with a contract with Nike.
She has raced twice as a professional and has twice finished within Olympic qualification times, first in the 200m in Hungary last week – where she was second to world champion Shericka Jackson – and then in the 400m at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco last Friday, where she squeaked into fourth place.
So what did she learn from observing the pros up close?
“Ehm…nothing really”, she laughs. “When I’m around them I usually just focus on myself, it’s probably easy to get distracted by seeing the big names and stuff. But at the end of the day we’re all athletes who compete against each other on the same playing field.”
Adeleke’s star has shone brightly in Ireland for years but this was the year it dazzled the rest of the world. She won 400m silver at the NCAA indoors in February and followed it up with gold in the outdoor event in June, becoming the first Irish woman to win an outdoor NCAA sprint title. She also holds just the six national records: at 60m and 300m indoors along with records in the 200m and 400m both indoors and outdoors.
It appears she won’t assail the Irish 100m record at this weekend’s National Championship, however, as she is currently only entered in the 200m, which she is using as part of her tune-up for the World Athletics Championships in Budapest next month. Adeleke admits she is targeting a medal at the Worlds but is keeping shtum on the potential colour of it.
Although she won’t be competing on the college circuit next season, Adeleke will stay in college as she has one year left of her degree in Corporate Communications at the University of Texas. She will therefore continue to train with the college athletics team and Edrick Floréal will continue as her coach.
“That helped make my decision easier”, says Adeleke, “knowing I still have a lot of the support I used to have. I will be like a volunteer coach for Texas, I will still be at their competitions with them, making sure they are okay. I’ll still feel integrated with them.
“Being a part of a team, you are running for so much more than yourself, but I feel that’s still the case. When I run for Ireland I am running for so much more than myself. I am trying to make my country proud; make my family and friends proud.”
Adeleke has turned pro because her priorities have strayed beyond the NCAAs. I ask her what success looks like when she closes her eyes and visualises her career as a professional.
“It’s just being really successful on the major stages like the Diamond League, World Championships, and Olympics”, she replied. “Being a force to be reckoned with and to be recognised as one of the main competitors in my event and my discipline. To be consistently at that level: that is definitely my main goal as a pro.”
Adeleke is only 20 but isn’t exactly impervious to impatience.
“I feel I have to do it now because I want it today and I want it tomorrow”, she says. “I want to win today and I want to keep winning. That’s why I feel I have to do it now. It’s not like, ‘I have to win Worlds now in case I get injured next year’, it’s not like that. I want to achieve as many accolades as I can before I retire because at the end of the day you’re not going to be running forever.”
Nor is she one to temper expectations. Asked if there is an athlete on the circuit to whom she aspires, Adeleke picks Shaunae Miller-Uibo, the reigning world and Olympic champion at 400m.
“Whenever she has gone into a Worlds or Olympics, all eyes were on her, as she has been kind of untouchable in the event”, says Adeleke. “That is what I aspire to be.”
The expectation that comes with a status like that is merely the cost of doing business.
“It can be additional pressure, but I feel that is what comes with competing at that level and that standard”, she says. “It’s just something you have to be prepared for.”
She helpfully holds a creed for dealing with that expectation.
“‘You are not as important as you think you are’”, she says.
“Even though it sounds awful! I feel a lot of people are pressurised by the expectations of other people. People expect things of you because you hold you in a certain regard. At the end of the day, if you don’t achieve these things, people move on. People have their own lives to live, it’s not like they’ll be thinking about you every second of the day. ‘Oh my God, Rhasidat didn’t win, oh my God!’ People aren’t that obsessed with you. So just have short-term memory. If something doesn’t go well, move on. If something does go well, enjoy the moment and then look forward to what’s next.”
The Nike deal, meanwhile, is a “whole different ball game.”
“Nike is the head of the sporting world when it comes to apparel and shoes and stuff like that”, she says. “Not everyone can be signed to Nike, so I feel people respected me more, or respected my level of competition more.”
Nike, says Adeleke, also respect the fact she wants to make the world aware that she is more than just an athlete.
“They can really help me really push my brand out there. At the end of the day I want to show I am more than just an athlete and that I have other interests. I like to have my hair done and my make-up done for when I am running. It’s obviously, ‘Look good, feel good’, but people can also look and say, ‘Oh, wow, I like how she did her hair, let me do my hair like that.’ Just integrating different interests.
“It can also attract people from different walks of life who aren’t athletics fans. Like Sha’Carri Richardson: the nails, the hair! Did any of you see the US trial where she took her wig off? That would have been posted on something like The Shade Room [on Instagram] that has 28 million followers.
“Those are people who don’t actually watch athletics, but all of a sudden are interested in athletics, as athletics has more to offer than just running around the track. You have girls who have their hair done and their nails done and their make-up done, who are out there showing their personalities. I think it’s important to do more than just run, but show different aspects of your life while you do your craft.”
Adeleke certainly won’t struggle to hold the nation’s attention.
Rhasidat Adeleke is an Allianz Ireland ambassador. Allianz Insurance are proud to be global and local partners of the Olympic movement as they continue to support Irish athletes, inspiring them to write their own future as Allianz underwrite it. #YouWriteIt #WeUnderwriteIt
