Rhasidat Adeleke: Ireland’s fastest woman is ‘locked in’ for 400m and ready for the Paris 2024 Olympics
Rhasidat Adeleke is the fastest woman from Ireland, ever, and is still a rising star heading to Paris 2024.
The 21-year-old, born in Dublin, holds national athletics records for 100m, 200m and 400m indoors and out, and recently won her first Diamond League meeting in Monaco.
That was in the 400m, the discipline she will compete in at the Paris Olympics. Adeleke has run the fourth-fastest time in this year at 49.07 seconds, which was also her personal best.
Only three athletes have gone sub-49 in 2024 – Nickisha Pryce, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Natalia Kaczmarek – making Adeleke a challenger for the podium places come 9 August, when the 400m final takes place at the Stade de France.
“I run because I love the thrill, just getting so much joy from seeing the way I progress. Thinking of summer 2024, I’m pretty locked in, it definitely makes me excited,” she told Life Style Sports.
“By the times the Games come around, I’ll have done all the work, and it’s just time to show the world what I’ve been working on.”
Adeleke is peaking at the right time, and picked up silver at the European Championships behind Poland’s Kaczmarek when clocking her personal best in June.
That time of 49.07 was more than a second quicker than the 50.13 Adeleke posted in the 2023 World Athletics Champions final, showing how far she has come in under 12 months.
Adeleke has admirably done through while fighting adversity, having faced racist abuse online and suffering mentally as a result.
“I think that’s probably the most pain I’ve seen her have,” Edrick Floreal, her coach at Texas University, said. “She was really in a dark place when she read those things on the internet. She doesn’t cry ever, so when she cries it’s like, ‘Oh my God’, so that bothered her more than I ever thought and I just let her handle it.”
This came after the Europeans where Adeleke also won gold in the mixed 4x400m relay and silver in the 4x400m relay, and prompted a response of support from Taoiseach Simon Harris.
“Rhasidat Adeleke is not only a world-class champion, she is a world-class person,” Harris said. “You are class, so please do not let online cowards bring you down.
“You are Ireland and Ireland could not be more proud of you.”
In a subsequent post on X, Harris said Adeleke is “inspiring a generation”.
Rhasidat Adeleke combined with Chris O'Donnell, Thomas Barr, and Sharlene Mawdsley to win the 400m mixed relay gold at the European Championships
Adeleke trains at the Tallaght Athletic Club near Dublin, while she had previously taken up a scholarship to compete for the University of Texas.
There she honed her craft, winning medals at NCAA sprints events, but she opted to bypass her final year in Austin to turn professional in 2023.
That same year she became the first Irish woman to go sub 50 seconds in the 400m, with records tumbling ever since.
She combined with Chris O'Donnell, Thomas Barr, and Sharlene Mawdsley to win the 400m mixed relay gold at the European Championships in June – Ireland’s first gold at this event sice 1998 – and then two days after her individual silver, she came second again with Sophie Becker, Phil Healy and Sharlene Mawdsley in the women’s relay.
It all makes Adeleke one to watch in Paris, as she takes the dream of becoming the first Irish woman to win athletics gold to the track.