As Simidele Adeagbo is training and improving her skills in the monobob (one-person bobsled), she is also actively involved in helping fund the dreams of other elite female athletes through her SimiSleighs Foundation, launched last fall. The foundation recently announced its Athlete Grant program to address the funding disparity between men and women, particularly in Olympic and Paralympic sports.
With funding from the Marks Family Foundation and other contributors, the Athlete Grant program provides financial support for training and competition expenses as well as personal and professional development.
Adeagbo’s life would make a great movie. In 2017, she was a Nike marketing executive nearly a decade removed from athletic competition—a track and field athlete at the University of Kentucky who tried out for the 2008 U.S. Olympic team—when a friend encouraged her to take up the sport of skeleton. Several months later, she was part of the first-ever team of athletes from Nigeria, her parents’ homeland, to compete at the Olympic Winter Games. For the 2022 Games, she switched to the monobob, but despite a successful season, she did not qualify for the Olympics in Beijing.
“Skeleton will always be a first love,” said Adeagbo. “I still think I have a lot of potential in skeleton that never got fully realized, but for now I’m focusing on monobob and seeing where that can take me.
“I have a long-term strategy and vision for how I see my growth and development leading up to [2026],” she added. “I felt that this year was a really good opportunity to challenge myself by getting on new tracks, put more emphasis on training, and having quality opportunities to learn and grow in my skills as a monobob pilot.”
Adeagbo, 41, hopes to inspire women to not be defined by age or gender. “I’ve chosen to explore a path that is very unconventional, a path that I never really expected to be on,” she said. “Once I got on that path, I fully embraced it and wanted to explore it more and more to see where I can take it. The path has always been rooted in purpose.”
That purpose has deepened with the SimiSleighs Foundation. The Athlete Grant Program is a one-year program for athletes within the Olympic and Paralympic movement who have established themselves within their sports. Later this year, the foundation will also launch a leadership program for adolescent girls that utilizes curriculum to build confidence and courage.
“Our mission is clear. We want to build a better world for girls and women through sport,” said Adeagbo.
