Adeleke admits she still has 'so much to learn'

Olympian and Allianz ambassador, Rhasidat Adeleke after making history at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. Pic: Morgan Treacy/Inpho

The Olympic lessons didn’t end for Rhasidat Adeleke when she walked off the track at the Stade de France just under three weeks ago. Last weekend’s Diamond League meet in Silesia was every bit as much a part of the learning curve.

A fourth-place finish in the 400m was an unwelcome reminder of the fourths banked in the 400 and in the 4x400m women’s relay in Paris, but her time of 50.00 flat was three-quarters of a second slower than the time which was below her best in that Olympic final.

Marileidy Paulino followed up her gold medal with another noticeably good time in Poland. 

Few others would look at the clock afterwards and feel good about their numbers on a normal night, but then the off-ramp from an Olympics makes for no ordinary night.

Adeleke “got really sick” after her exertions in Paris. She also had to contend with a long-haul flight to her base in Austin, Texas and then back again to Europe. So, under the circumstances, that run wasn’t brilliant but it wasn’t terrible either.

“I was talking with some of the other girls who have a bit more experience, like ‘why is everyone so tired?’ I was talking to Sada Williams, and she was like ‘girl, it’s been a long season, this is how it is’.

“I was like ‘wow, because I was really tired after [the Worlds in] Budapest last season, and I thought it was because of the collegiate season. But even as a pro, the mental capacity it takes to keep going day in, day out - and I even had an indoor season too - so it’s still that same type of fatigue that is there.

“I’m still learning, there’s so much to learn.” 

Her effort in Poland wasn’t helped by the fact that her luggage, and with that her favoured foods, didn’t catch up with her until she was due to leave but this is all knowledge for the mind back as she braces for just a 22nd birthday on Thursday.

Lessons on the track are probably the most valuable of all. Adeleke stormed into the lead through the first 100m in Silesia but was hunted down by the same three women who claimed podium places in the French capital earlier this month.

She remains aware of the long game at play here. This is only her second season as a 400m runner and she is committed to learning how to run, in what style, how she should position herself, and how the runners alongside her shape a race.

“My coach wanted me to try something and we’re at the point in the season where you can experiment because the main part of the season is over. I think I did a good 300, and I feel like I panicked in the last 100m.

“I was ahead and I was like, “Oh my God, where are they? Where are they? And then I soon found out where they were! It was a good time, I feel, to figure out things about running a 400. I feel like I definitely need a lot more experience.” 

Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser finished second last weekend, as she did in the Olympic final, having been banned for two years in 2021 for missing three doping tests inside a 12-month period.

It emerged after the Games that Naser was one of ten Bahrainis allowed to run in the French capital after the national athletics association was banned from competing in other World Athletics events as of June 1st this year due to serious anti-doping violations.

Adeleke has avoided comment on Naser, both after Paris and on Tuesday, but she strayed beyond talk of keeping to her own lane and controlling the controllables when expressing the need for greater sanctions for athletes who flout anti-doping rules.

“I don’t know what sanctions they got, to be honest,” she said of the Bahraini association. 

“I’m not really sure how that all works. But I think for sure if there were more lifelong consequences for doping, or being caught or missing three tests or bans or things like that, [then] people would think twice before they make certain decisions.

“I feel like if the sanctions were higher, if there were more significant consequences, it would have a different outcome. But I’m not in a place to make those decisions so it's really up to doping and WADA etc so…” 

Adeleke's next and final race of the season will come in mid-September when she lines up for the 400m Diamond League race in Brussels. Then it's some time off and a return to her Austin, Texas base where she will remain as long as her coach Edrick Floreal is on site.

The road to LA 2028 has already started.