Nigeria will be the first African country to compete in the bobsled Olympics event. Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams make timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sled – it requires a lot of precision. The average speed of an Olympic bobsled is usually from 0 to 150km per hour, not an easy feat considering also the risk of crashing at 150kmh.
As they prepare to make Olympic history in Pyeongchang 2018, Nigeria’s women’s bobsleigh team admit they battle their demons every time they climb into the sled.
Being billed as “Cool Runnings” reloaded in Nigeria’s first Winter Games appearance, Seun Adigun and Akuoma Omeoga knelt in silent prayer Wednesday before hurtling down the track at breakneck speeds they know could kill them.
Thirty years after the Jamaican men’s bobsled team took the sports world by storm at the 1988 Calgary Olympics — immortalised in the hit Hollywood movie “Cool Runnings” — Nigeria’s women are poised to become Pyeongchang’s unlikeliest stars.
But it still takes nerves of steel to launch yourself down an icy mountain in an oversized tin can at 150kph (93mph).
“Of course you have to think about the dangers,” said the Texas-based Seun, who invited fellow runners Akuoma and Ngozi Onwumere to compete in the two-man bobsleigh in September 2016.
“You have to accept it and embrace it before you can actually apply what you need to protect yourself.
“It’s a ripping run of speed and being jolted around and sucked down into the bottom of the sled, whether it’s head first or bum first — you roll with the punches,” she chuckled.
“It’s very similar to being thrown down a hill in a trash can — you just don’t really know where you’ll end up sometimes.”
Wooden sled
The daredevil ladies, who will fly Nigeria’s flag with Simidele Adeagbo in the women’s skeleton, all grew up in the United States with a strong sense of pride in their African roots.
Their steep learning curve began by learning push starts at home in Houston in a wooden sled cobbled together by Seun using scrap materials from a hardware store.
The Nigerians booked their Olympic spot last November after Seun broke three helmets in qualifying, but with their long-awaited debut just days away Seun revealed they have yet to attempt a start at full pelt.
Credit: NTA
