Simidele Adeife Omonla Adeagbo (born July 29, 1981, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Nigerian skeleton racer who competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
She is Nigeria and Africa’s first female skeleton athlete, as well as the first black female athlete in the sport of skeleton. Before competing in the skeleton, Adeagbo competed in the triple jump, last competing in 2008.
Adeagbo was born in Toronto, in Ontario, Canada, to Nigerian parents; but she moved back to Nigeria when she was an infant, and stayed there through age 6.
Adeagbo served as a Nike body double for Serena Williams, Adeagbo is a marketing manager for Nike in South Africa since 2012.
On August 18th 2018, Adeagbo spoke alongside other noteworthy speakers, to a sold-out audience during the TEDxLagos spotlight event at the Muson Centre.
She shared the stage with legal practitioner Supo Shasore, Award-winning technologist Ade Olufeko, Art curator Tokini Peterside and media personality Banky W. amongst others.
Adeagbo started Track and Field competition in high school. She retired from Track and Field competition in June 2008.
At that time, she failed to qualify for the Olympics by 8-inches. She had become a 4-time NCAA All-American and was the triple jump record holder for the University of Kentucky.
Adeagbo became interested in skeleton in December 2016, when she heard about the Nigeria bobsled team attempting to qualify for the Olympics.
She first tried to qualify for that team at tryouts in July 2017, where she had to try in a skeleton sledge instead of a bobsled. She started skeleton in September 2017. She became sponsored by her employer, Nike, for the skeleton.
Adeagbo competed at her first Olympics at the 2018 Winter Olympics in the skeleton, as part of the Nigerian team, becoming the first Nigerian to compete at the Winter Olympics.
She was the Nigerian flag bearer at the 2018 Winter Olympics closing ceremony.
Proudly from Ekiti State, Simi is first Nigeria’s Skeleton athlete that has broken a significant barrier in sports.
She was born in Toronto to Nigerian parents and lived in Nigeria from when she was an infant to 6 years old.
Officially, she is the first Black female athlete to compete in the Skeleton in the Winter Olympics.
Before then, Adeagbo was a four-time NCAA All-American and triple jump school record holder at the University of Kentucky.
She was consistently nationally ranked and was a two-time U.S. Olympic Trials finalists in the triple jump, narrowly missing a spot on the 2008 Olympic Team.
Her ambition to represent Nigeria at the Skeleton sport was revived in 2016, after hearing about a Nigerian bobsled team(Seun, Ngozi and Akuoma) plan on competing in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea.
Simidele remains fully determined and committed to her personal goals, and hope to bring the gold medal home.
As of December 2017, Adeagbo resides in Johannesburg, South Africa, since 2012.
