Irish sprinter Rhasidat Adeleke is making her presence felt on the world stage after deciding to forego a final year at the University of Texas to earn a living in athletics.
The Tallaght sprinter debuted at the Gyulai Istvan Meeting in Hungary on Tuesday evening finishing second to Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson in a World and Olympic qualifying time of 22.36 seconds.
She lines up again on Friday evening in the 400m at the Diamond League in Monaco.
Adeleke confirmed earlier this week that she will not be completing her final year at the University of Texas in Austin in order to take up a professional running contract in advance of next year’s Paris Olympics.
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She posted a notice on social media that she was turning professional to pursue a career in the sport and paid tribute to all that had been done for her by the university of Austin.
“A once in a lifetime experience, thank you Texas,” she posted.
“I’m extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to represent the University of Texas these past three years. I couldn’t have made a better decision! I’d like to thank absolutely everyone who supported me along the way and those that helped me become who I am today.
"However, I’d like to announce that I am forgoing the remainder of my eligibility and becoming a professional athlete.”
'Turning professional' is not a term we are familiar with in Europe where many athletes pursue an athletics career and further their education at the same time. However, the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) in the USA forbids athletes receiving any monetary reward in terms of prize-money, shoe sponsorship, even items that can be converted to money.
Had Adeleke stayed within the terms of her athletics scholarship, she would have lost out financially on any shoe contract, appearance money or sponsorship she gained this summer.
At only 20 and current NCAA 400m champion, she is very marketable from an athletics point of view.
She can consequently demand handsome starting money at meetings all across Europe in next two months and will be rewarded financially should she win a medal at the World Championships in Hungary next month.
While she cannot compete for the University of Texas again, it is likely that a place will be found for her on the coaching team in Austin to enable her to continue training there.
This would seem to be borne out by the fact that Edrick Floreal will continue to coach her.
“If the time is right for her to go and make a living out of this, I’ve already told her she can stay at Texas as long as she wants, and I’ll coach her,” he said recently.
Adeleke will experience life in the fast lane on Friday evening as she faces, among others, the number one in the world this year Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone who won the American title for the distance two weeks ago in 48.74 seconds.
Adeleke is second fastest of the field on paper with her Irish record 49.20 while there are five other women in the race who have bettered 50 seconds. Ciara Mageean also competes in the mile in Monaco.
