Oludamola Bolanle (“Damola”) Osayomi (born 26 June 1986 in Ilesha, Osun State) is a Nigerian sprinter who specializes in the 100 metres and 200 metres.
She is a four-time gold medallist at the African Championships in Athletics and won an Olympic silver medal with Nigeria in the 4×100 metres relay at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
She also won the 100 and 200 m sprints at the 2007 All-Africa Games.
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Her personal best for the 100 m is 10.99 seconds, set in São Paulo in 2011. She studied business administration at the University of Texas at El Paso and represented the school in athletics in 2006.
She was the original winner of the 100 m at the 2010 Commonwealth Games but was stripped of her title and banned after her doping test came back positive for the stimulant methylhexanamine.
Osayomi’s first international appearance for Nigeria came at the 2003 World Youth Championships in Athletics where she was a semi-finalist in both the 100 m and 200 metres. She began to compete in senior competitions the following year as part of the Nigerian 4×100 metres relay team.
On her Olympic debut, her team came seventh in the women’s final at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the team repeated that position at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics the next year. Osayomi proved herself individually at the 2007 All-Africa Games by taking a 100/200 m gold medal double before helping the relay team to the silver medal.
On her world 100 m debut at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics, she made her way into the final round (finishing eighth) and set a personal best of 11.15 seconds in the heats.
The Nigerian women did not reach the relay final on that occasion.
“My belief is that I am going back to play football. I want to show people that commonwealth Games in New Delhi, Osayomi won the women’s 100 metres but lost her gold medal after her B sample tested positive for methylhexanamine, which has only been recently added to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s prohibited list.
Ironically, before being banned she had said: “I don’t know why they allow people to participate in the competition if they cannot follow the rules.”
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