Last year, three athletes set out to the hardware store to make history, and twelve months later it paid off because they did it! KweséESPN has reported that Seun Adigun, Ngozi Onwumere and Akuoma Omeoga, US-based Nigerian sprinters–who started out with just a homemade wooden sled–are now the first African bobsled team to qualify for the Olympics.
Adigun, who ran in the 2012 Olympics and is now also eligible for the World Cup of You Go Girl, spearheaded the project and recruited her other two teammates in 2016.
The Washington Post reports that they started out with the GoFundMe campaign, hitting their $75,000 goal which “proved enough to goad Nigeria into starting a governing federation for the sport, as well as for the team to start practicing in a real bobsled on ice.” The paper also notes that no African country has ever won a medal in the Winter Olympic games.
“Our objective now is to be the best representation of Africa that the Winter Olympics have ever witnessed,” Adigun told the network.
Bobsledding looks fun.