Rhasidat Adeleke is fast becoming an icon for modern Ireland

Rhasidat Adeleke prepares to compete in the European Championships Munich 2022. Picture: Simon Hofmann/Getty Images for European Athletics

It’s been fascinating to watch the rise of Dublin sprinter Rhasidat Adeleke, because you know her achievements to date, while phenomenal, are just prologue to what she will accomplish in the fullness of her career. She’s still just 20 (born in this millennium, I regret to inform you!) and has been in particular record-smashing form of late, with three collegiate wins in rapid succession also earning her three new national records.

In mid-February, in South Carolina, she broke the national outdoor record for 200m in a time of 22.68. A week beforehand, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, she ran the quickest indoor 400m by an Irishwoman, in a time of 50.45.

And in January, she broke the national indoor record — her own — in 200m, with a time of 22.52, winning gold again for the University of Texas. Eyebrows were raised when Adeleke wasn’t selected for Team Ireland at the Tokyo Olympics, but ahead of qualification for Paris 2024, every race feels like a statement of intent.

Adeleke is a triple threat: she is the reigning U20 European champion at both 100m and 200m, and has stretched herself to become a 400m specialist as well. She burst onto the international senior scene last year, first at the world championships in Oregon and then at the European championships in Munich.

In Oregon, she was just 0.16 away from qualification when she finished fourth in her semi-final — a race won by two-time Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, a hero of Adeleke’s.

“I’ll hopefully go into next year with a new mindset and hope to achieve big things,” Adeleke said afterwards. “The competitor in me still wants more and wants a world final.”

Adeleke in flow is great to watch: six foot tall, with an upright gait and a long stride that gives the illusion of effortlessness.

However, it’s her ambition, charisma, and unapologetic high standards that really mark her out as a future champion. She’s never content with perfectly respectable performances.

“I wish I just had more in my legs for the last 50m,” she said in Munich, after finishing fifth in the 400m final, breaking another Irish record in the process. “Honestly I was really hoping for a medal.”

All of that will come. This is purely symbolic, but still important: as an example of young, Black, Irish excellence, Adeleke, along with teammates Israel Olutunde and Gina Apke-Moses, is an icon for contemporary Ireland. Every Irish kid should be able to see someone that looks like them succeeding at the highest level; Adeleke provides that visibility with her very presence. The impact is beyond measure.