Rhasidat Adeleke undecided on European and Olympic relay plans for now

Rhasidat Adeleke at the launch of Allianz’s #StopTheDrop Campaign. Picture: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Rhasidat Adeleke admits that it won’t be easy to balance relay commitments with her own 400m medal ambitions at the European Championships and Olympic Games in Rome and Paris later this year. But if anyone can manage it...

The Tallaght athlete has emerged as a world-class track star and she isn’t just a live prospect for a podium place in her individual event after a starring role with the Ireland women’s and mixed 4 x 400 relay teams at the recent World Relay Championships in the Bahamas.

However, the scheduling isn’t favourable at the year’s two mega-meets in Italy and France.

“It probably is going to be a little bit difficult. I know there are going to be rounds for each, but I don't know. Myself and my coach [Edrick Floréal] haven't really spoken about that. I don't know what the schedule is like, especially for the relays. I don't know what the schedule is like for the individual 400m.

“I know the mixed 4 x 400m is usually first, which is going to be a little difficult before the individual event considering the depth that's in the 400m right now. But I don't know, that could be something we look forward to doing and I'll see what my coach says. I think the women's 4 x 400m is afterwards so that leaves a bit more space to be able to do that.” 

Ireland qualified for the Games in both relays in the Caribbean with the mixed team going on to claim a bronze and the women’s quartet, minus Adeleke who sat the final out after securing Olympic qualification, coming in seventh.

It’s not that the 21-year old, who graduated from her degree in corporate communications just last week and plans on pursuing a masters in finance alongside her athletics career, hasn’t experience in juggling disparate needs.

Her time running for the University of Texas, where she is still based since turning pro last year, necessitated a plethora of meets with duties across a variety of races. This, maybe not coincidentally, is a woman who has learned how to sluice stress from her system.

“Other athletes all tell me I’m crazy and wonder how did I run two races on the first night [in the Bahamas] but that’s what I did in the NCAA a lot. I [would] have the 4 x 100 and then an hour later an individual 400m and then 30 minutes later maybe the 4 x 4.

“It’s never going to be super easy but mentally I don’t think of it as being crazy so I am able to wrap my head around it and proceed just running instead of stressing about having to do two or three races in one weekend.” 

This will be good! https://t.co/haNDZjK3KQ

— Michael Johnson (@MJGold) May 13, 2024

The plan for now is to stay lightly-raced.

The aim for Rome is a gold medal, quite possibly in the shorter 200m. There will be a few Diamond League runs while here in Europe and she turns into all this on the back of her ferocious 400m split of 48.45 at the relays and a superb wind-assisted 10.84 in the 100m at the Texas Invitational last month.

The legendary Michael Johnson has singled her out as one of track’s rising stars in a recent post on X and this is a woman who claims she still ‘doesn’t know her threshold’ given her transition to the longer full-lap distance only last season.

The mind boggles.

Next up is the USATF Los Angeles Grand Prix this coming weekend where she will aim to compete as an equal partner in a 200m field boasting the likes of the reigning Olympic and World 400m champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Abby Steiner and Gabby Thomas.

“Yeah, the past couple of weeks have given me confidence that I can compete against anybody in the world and once you have confidence I feel like you can take anybody down. My goal is to go in there open-minded, don’t be scared of any big name, don’t give them too much respect.

“In the past, at Worlds in 2022, when I was competing against Shaunae Miller-Uibo, I kind of let her go because I felt like she was supposed to be in front of me. She’s world champion, Olympic champion, she’s faster than me, she’s supposed to be ahead. But sometimes it’s ‘don’t give them too much respect and let them run away from you’.

“I’m going to go in there open-minded and see what I can do. I surprise myself every time.” 

Few others are shocked anymore. Coach Flo speaks constantly of what she needs to do to medal, regardless of the event or distance. Whatever the race, whether on her own or part of a four, Adeleke will be pushing for podiums this summer.

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. As the largest insurer of schools in Ireland, insuring over 500,000 children, Allianz want to play a part in stopping the drop in participation. Visit allianz.ie/StopTheDrop for more.