-New Urban SPORT- America's Sweethearts, Nigeria's Pride! Meet the Women's Bobsled Team Competing for Nigeria in the 2018 Winter Olympics

With an infectious spirit of positivity & can-do attitude, they are the Underdog Darlings of the 2018 Winter Olympics: Team Nigeria bobsled team(L-R):Breakman Ngozi Onwumere,  Pilot Seun Adigun and Co-Breakman Akuoma Omeoga (via Instagram) 

Some thirty years after Jamaica became the first black bobsled team to capture the world's heart, three extraordinary young Nigerian-American women are redefining sports history on Africa's behalf, set to compete as Nigeria's first bobsled team in the 2018 Winter Olympics. 

Of the 46 million black Americans in the United States, Nigerians make up the single largest contemporary African immigrant population in country, numbering at around 266,000 people. Most modern day Nigerian-Americans arrived from the 1960's to the 1980's, as doctors, lawyers and academics fleeing political instability at home.  Seun Adigun, Ngozi Onwumere, and Akuoma Omeoga were born in America, Chicago, St. Paul Minnesota, and Dallas, Texas respectively, but identify culturally as Nigerian first and foremost.  While the delightful young women are strong in their Nigerian roots you can see clear traces of their American cultural sensibilities from their social media posts to  Omeoga's "southern girl" shout outs to her Texas hometown of Dallas, to the ladies' general "bootstrapper"  approach to tackling their Olympic goals - a clear illustration that in the United States,  from the 1600's until now, there is no monolithic or singularly formative experience of what it means to be "Black American", and these young ladies are a prime example of the fusion of the best of two cultures to embody innovation,  female empowerment and determination.   

In just one year, these ladies went from a
homemade sled... to the 2018 Winter Olympics

Bobsled pilot Adigun has said in recent interviews that she got into the sport in 2015, when the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation was looking to grow more women's teams,  “I also learned that Nigeria, the country, had never had any Winter Olympians … And then to cap it off, I learned that the continent of Africa had never been represented, man or woman, by any bobsled team".  After kicking off an awe inspiring Go Fund Me campaign to underwrite the cost of team formation & training for the Olympics, the story of the ladies' journey caught the attention of VISA©, who quickly signed on to sponsor the team as they go for the gold next February in PyeongChang, South Korea.  VISA© says of their sponsorship, “When we first heard their story we recognized the collective spirit of these athletes as a perfect fit for Team Visa,” said Chris Curtin, chief brand and innovation marketing officer at Visa. “By joining Team Visa, we hope to provide this group of determined athletes with a global stage to tell their story and inspire athletes all over the world to follow their dreams and never give up.” 

It's literally been a thrilling ride for Team Nigeria, as the former three track & field professionals share what it's like to make sports history with media outlets around the globe.  The upbeat and bubbly trio has often joked that the sport often feels like barreling down a hill of ice in a trash can, but on a more serious note, have said of their sports journey, "We are from a continent that would never imagine sliding down ice at 80 or 90 miles per hour," Adigun told the BBC in March. "I find the idea of getting people to take to that inspiring in itself."  She also said in a recent interview to ESPN, “This is a huge milestone for sports in Nigeria.” adding; 

“Nothing makes me prouder than to know that I can play a small role in creating opportunities for winter sports to take place in Nigeria.

“Our objective now is to be the best representation of Africa that the Winter Olympics have ever witnessed.”
The 2018 Winter Olympics will be internationally televised from February 9th -25th.