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“I still kind of have that PTSD from the Olympics,” admits Rhasidat Adeleke. “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. I think that’s very necessary to be successful.”
Adeleke was just three-tenths of a second away from a medal in the 400m final in Paris. In the women’s 4x400m relay it was even less. Both of those stung, but at the age of 22 she has the maturity not to let such near-misses cloud her judgment on another breakthrough season.
She broke six national records as an individual and contributed to six more in relays, leaving the European Championships in Rome with three medals – two silvers and one gold – while also helping Ireland to mixed 4x400m bronze at the World Relays.
After wrapping up her season in September Adeleke returned to Dublin, spending three weeks catching up with friends and family before going back to Austin, Texas, ready to rip into training. Though her coach, Edrick Floreal, insisted she take a holiday first. Adeleke followed his advice and went to Mexico with friends.
“He’s strong on, ‘all work, no play will have you burnt out a lot earlier than you should be,’” she says. “He’s very vocal about being able to do those things that take you away from all the work and replenish yourself.”
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 home straight while also targeting muscle weaknesses that have sometimes seen her posture falter late in races. “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.”
She’s currently knee deep in the winter grind: hill runs and long, lung-bursting reps; weights sessions and a plethora of finicky exercises in the gym, trying to iron any inefficiencies out of her stride. Searching for tiny fractions, knowing how decisive they can be.
“That’s what fall training is for: the grimy stuff you don’t really like.”
Adeleke plans to bypass the European Indoors and World Indoors in March and will likely run just “one or two” indoor races in the US. Her team was approached about signing up for Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track – a new professional league with lucrative contracts that will run from April to July – but Floreal “didn’t see a fit for us,” she says, adding he “had his reasons.”
She’s currently back home in Tallaght, with Christmas Day the only rest day pencilled into her schedule, and Adeleke is inevitably doing some reflecting on the year it’s been. “I’m able to understand that it’s OK 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 female sportspeople are making, with 85pc 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 ever, a nine per cent increase on last year. “Hopefully in the next couple of years we can continue growing sports,” she says.
One of the highlights of the off-season was meeting Rihanna, who follows Adeleke 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 the celebrity world, Adeleke has her eyes firmly on 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.”
As 2024 draws 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.”
Rhasidat Adeleke was speaking as an ambassador for KPMG, which launched their research celebrating an inspiring year for women’s sport in Ireland. The study underscores the significant societal impact of female athletes, with a remarkable 92pc agreeing that female sports stars have a positive impact on Irish society.
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