'I still have that PTSD from the Olympics' — Rhasidat Adeleke taking lessons from year of growth
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By now she’s back in the thick of it – knee-deep in hill runs and long, lung-bursting reps. Heaving weights and grinding through a full gamut of finicky exercises in the gym, trying to iron all inefficiencies out of her stride. Searching for tiny fractions, knowing just how decisive they can be.
If all goes to plan, Rhasidat Adeleke hopes it will add up to her winning a first global medal over 400m at the World Championships in Tokyo next September. But there are many rivers to cross before she gets there.
“Training has been really hard,” she says. “We’re working on my weaknesses so anything that you’re not that good at is always going to be very hard. It’s been a lot of progress so I’m happy about that. That’s what fall training is for: the grimy stuff you don’t really like.”
Adeleke finished fourth in last year’s world 400m final and in this year’s Olympic final, then faced another fourth-place finish in the women’s 4x400m relay. At the age of 22, that’s her fair share of frustration already banked at the top level.
“I still kind of have that PTSD from the Olympicsp,” she admits. “Sometimes I’m scrolling through my camera and I just skip through all of those pictures. It definitely wasn’t a bad year. I did make a lot of progress in different events. It was a year of growth and I learned a lot of lessons. And I think that's very necessary to be able to be successful.”
Adeleke broke six national records as an individual this year and contributed to six more in relays, leaving the European Championships in Rome with three medals: two silvers and one gold. After wrapping up her season in September she returned to Dublin, spending three weeks catching up with friends and family before going back to Austin, Texas, ready to tear into training. Though her coach, Edrick Floreal, insisted she take a holiday first, Adeleke following his advice and going to Mexico with friends.
“He’s strong on, ‘all work, no play will have you burnt out a lot earlier than you should be.’ He’s very vocal about being able to do those things that take you away from all the work and you’re able to replenish yourself. Otherwise, it’s just going to feel like too much when it comes to training and being able to focus all the time on one thing.”
Since starting back, the focus has been on strength: developing the speed endurance engine to allow her to match the world’s best in the last 100 metres, while also targeting muscle weaknesses that have sometimes seen her posture falter late in races. “I know what I'm not good at and I'm really good at taking constructive criticism so if someone is like, ‘you need to work on this' then I'm like, 'OK, what do I need to do?’ I want to do everything I can to get better at this sport and to reach our full potential.”
The upcoming year is laden with potential medal opportunities, though Adeleke plans to bypass two of them and skip the European Indoors and World Indoors in March. She will run “one or two” indoor races, both of them in the US, before moving on to the outdoor season.
While many of the world’s best have signed up for Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track – a new professional league with lucrative contracts and prize money – Adeleke is not among them. Her team was approached with an offer but Floreal “just didn’t see a fit for us,” she says, adding her coach “had his reasons.” Adeleke is back home in Tallaght for Christmas, though Christmas Day is the only rest day pencilled into her schedule. “I'm able to spend time with my family now and appreciate everything and kind of reflect. I'm able to understand that it's okay to miss out on certain things because it's part of the bigger picture.”
Despite the absence of an Olympic medal, she knows how big an impact she and other athletes made over the summer, with 85% of respondents to a survey saying they were personally inspired by Adeleke and fellow KPMG ambassadors Rachael Blackmore and Leona Maguire. Meanwhile Athletics Ireland’s membership recently passed 70,000 for the first time, a 9% increase on last year.
“Hopefully in the next couple of years we can continue growing sports,” she says.
One of the highlights of Adeleke’s off season was a meeting with Rihanna, who follows the Dubliner on Instagram. “It was cool,” she says. “When you get next to someone they just feel like another person, but when you sit down and realise all the things they’ve achieved and their talent, you get to appreciate it.” Despite many offers coming in from that celebrity world, Adeleke has her eyes firmly down the track. “Because my heart is so deep into athletics and wanting to achieve so much, I usually don’t even need somebody to tell me to focus on the main thing. I already know what my goals are.” And as 2024 comes to a close, she’s taking a “glass half full” approach on all it was.
“I learned a lot of things I'm going to be able to take into next season. I would rather learn things earlier on than make these mistakes when I'm supposed to be reaching my peak. I've taken a lot away and I'll be able to apply that next year.”