Rhasidat Adeleke cannot remember a time when she didn’t want to be in the thick of sport but she can remember her friends dropping out and fleeting moments wondering whether it was worth all the missed parties and the rest of being a teenager and even then a student in Texas.

That love of sport, all sport, is what makes her a winning ambassador for the Allianz “Stop the Drop” campaign.

While sport is a part of our national DNA, 1 in 5 children stop participating in sport at the transition from primary to secondary school.

Adeleke played everything when she was younger.

“Even if I wasn’t successful at track and field, I would definitely have stayed in the sport because of the people I have met, the connections I’ve made,” she said yesterday.

Going out for a run or going for a session with friends can take your mind off so many other things in life. It is so important to have that avenue.”

Irish athletics is certainly grateful for that mentality and she is poised to be one of the stars of Team Ireland, and maybe the World at the upcoming European Championships in Rome and then on the biggest stage of all the Olympic Games in Paris.

What she will compete in though is out of her hands and will be the final decision of her coach, Edrick Floréal.

He was happy for her to compete in the World relay Championships in Nassau, though he didn’t travel and insisted that she only compete in one Final on the Sunday, given that the races were only 20 minutes apart.

“If he wants me to run the relays, I’ll run the relays. It’s all down to him as he is very experienced. He knows my training, what I can do, what my fitness is looking like.

“If he thinks it is something that is possible, I’d love to do the relays, because I’d love to win a relay medal with my team. But if he thinks it won’t allow me to do what I should be able to do in an individual event, it will have to be that way.”

The fact that the relays come after the individual events may free up his thinking and her participation come Paris but there could be tough decisions ahead for the athlete who has us all dreaming not only of Olympic Finals but of Olympic Medals.

Allianz’ “Stop the Drop” campaign will be a primary feature of the Sport for Business Children and Sport Report to be published next week and Conference to be held in September.

 

Allianz and the Olympic Federation of Ireland are full members of the Sport for Business Community.

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