Simidele Adeagbo
(Nigeria): The Original Sleigh Queen

Simidele (Simi) was the first African and black woman to compete in Skeleton at the Olympics, and more recently, the first African to take home gold at an international bobsled competition: “We don’t have the facilities [in Nigeria], and we don’t have the equipment, so to know that I was going into that space with a lot of barriers, and to know that I was still able to win was very symbolic. It showed me what was possible.” While Simi just missed qualifying for Beijing in the monobob, this Olympian (2018) was a voice we wanted to elevate because she’s breaking records and boundaries for her country of Nigeria and her new sport, monobob.

In this episode, Simi talks about why diversity in sport matters and her new book, Sleigh, Sleigh, Sleigh All Day.

Contributing Expert: April Holmes (4X Paralympian, 3X Paralympic Medalist)

related

Sofia grew up wanting to do everything her older brother, Tommaso did, so when he took to the slopes, she begged her Mom to …
Yip Pin Xiu is a “born and bred city girl’, having grown up in Singapore with her close-knit family flying kites, playing in the …
Sam Mewis grew up flipping over rocks in the woods of Massachusetts hunting for salamanders, while Lynn Williams grew up on a pecan farm …

google podcast