Nigerian wrestler Odunayo Adekuoroye, 26, plans for pursuing studies have been disrupted due to the outbreak of coronavirus. The wrestler had plans to continue schooling post-Tokyo Games but the postponement of the Olympics to 2021 has spoilt ambition. She is now uncertain if she will be going to school now or not.
“I would have loved to further my education because I thought I could just finish the Olympics and go back to school, but since they’ve postponed the Olympics to 2021, I have not decided if I will be going to school now or not,” the three-time world medallist told The Punch.
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She wished that just like other countries sports and education could go hand-in-hand in Nigeria. But the governments makes it too tough to pursue both together.
“It is possible (to combine sports and education) but in Nigeria, they make things too hard for you to combine. Imagine you have a competition and the federation already wrote a letter to the school that you won’t be around when an examination is going on. Some lecturers will make you carry over such courses instead of making you sit for the exams again. So, it practically makes combining sports and education difficult but not impossible,” she added.
She, however, do know that some schools do support athletes and encourage them to do both (train and study) like the University of Port Harcourt.
She says,”I heard they encourage their athletes but I live and train in Akure, so going to Port Harcourt will be something else. And I cannot even train without my coach because we’ve been together from day one”.
Adekuoroye booked a spot at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games after reaching the semi-finals of the Senior World Wrestling Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan in September 2019
