For Winter Olympian Simidele Adeagbo, a former track and field athlete who now competes in bobsled, the upcoming Olympic Games have a personal touch. In 2022, she launched the SimiSleighs Foundation, which has the mission to build a better world for girls and women. One of the foundation’s key focuses is on working toward gender equity in sports, and each year it provides grants to elite female athletes training for either the Olympics or Paralympics.
“It’s a holistic program that really develops them on and off the field of play,” said Adeagbo. In addition to financial grants, the athletes receive monthly programming that includes athlete support services, skills development and leadership development. They explore a range of topics such as sports nutrition, mental performance and digital marketing with experts who share their knowledge.
It is a global program. Among the athletes competing at the Olympics are grant recipients Paige Crozon, who will represent Canada in 3×3 basketball, and Helen Maroulis, U.S. wrestler heading to her third Games. Six-time Paralympian in U.S. track and field, Tatyana McFadden, will compete in her seventh Paralympics.
“Sometimes as athletes they don’t have opportunities to develop leadership capability, so we’re helping them to get to their goals,” said Adeagbo. “Then, it’s about how you leverage the platform and influence you have to make a positive impact in your communities and around the world.”
There have been ongoing discussions about having an equal number of men and women that will compete at the Paris Olympics. “It’s a step forward that we’re able to get to that milestone of equal participation, but I think there’s still room to grow and build,” Adeagbo said. “That’s part of the work we do every day with the foundation. Equality and equity are different things. We work to make sure the equity component is there. There’s a gap in opportunities in terms of funding.”
Adeagbo, who represents Nigeria, is training for the next bobsled season. She is looking forward to watching the Olympics and thinking about how SimiSleighs can continue to build opportunities and strengthen voices.
“We feel this is a perfect moment to invite people to join the movement,” she said. “We’ve seen women’s sports kind of exploding this year. We want to issue a call to action. We work just as hard as our male counterparts. We just need to make sure that the support is there in the same way.”