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SAINT-DENIS, France — Annette Echikunwoke had already flown to Tokyo and moved into the Olympic Village three years ago when she received the worst news of her life.
Inside an empty room in the Olympic village, on her 25th birthday, Echikunwoke and nine fellow Nigerian track and field athletes learned that they had been declared ineligible to compete in Tokyo.
Two Nigerian officials informed the athletes that administrative lapses by the country’s athletics federation were to blame for them missing mandatory out-of-competition doping tests during the runup to Tokyo. None of them had tested positive for a banned substance, yet anti-doping officials disqualified all of them.
The 10 disqualified athletes staged a protest in the Olympic Village the next day, brandishing cardboard signs with handwritten messages that read “Dreams mattered!” or “All we wanted to do is compete!” The protest for a day drew media coverage around the globe. Then the story was slowly forgotten.
“I can’t even begin to explain how heartbroken I am,” Echikunwoke wrote on Instagram following her disqualification. “It honestly feels like a fever dream.”
Lamenting all the wasted throwing sessions, hard lifts and time away from her family, Echikunwoke added, “All I’m left with is this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.”
Three years after she cried her eyes out in Tokyo, Echikunwoke shed tears for a much happier reason. The Ohio-born Nigerian-American was back at an Olympics on Tuesday night, this time wearing red, white and blue and representing the U.S. And she wore a silver medal around her neck after finishing second in the women’s hammer throw competition.
On her third attempt of the competition, Echikunwoke ascended to first place with a season-best throw of 75.48 meters, one centimeter shy of the best throw of her career. Echikunwoke remained in gold medal position until the fifth round when Canada’s Camryn Rogers produced a throw of 76.97 meters to take over first place.
With her final throw, Echikunwoke unleashed all her strength to try to overtake Rogers.
“I mean, like hey, you have the opportunity,” she said. “Let’s see if you can try to get a gold. Like why not?”
It wasn’t quite enough. Silver was hers.
“I can’t be mad at that,” Echikunwoke said.
The daughter of parents who met in Nigeria but later moved to the U.S., Echikunwoke grew up in Pickerington, Ohio. She began throwing in high school, twice finishing third in the shot put at the Ohio State Championships and also finding success throwing the discus.
When Echikunwoke was a freshman at the University of Cincinnati, her coach suggested that she try the hammer throw. Echikunwoke’s first attempts, to say the least, did not go well. She got dizzy. She didn’t understand the technique or where to step. She had big hair in those days, and it would inevitably get stuck in the chain of the hammer.
“I didn’t know what I was doing,” Echikunwoke said.
As time went on, she learned. Quickly, in fact. By her sophomore year at Cincinnati, she finished eighth in the women’s hammer throw at the NCAA championships. By the end of her college career, she viewed herself not as a shot putter but a hammer thrower.
When it was time for her to choose which country to represent, Echikunwoke chose Nigeria out of pragmatism, not patriotism. The U.S. after all was a lot deeper with hammer throw talent than Nigeria was.
“I felt like there was a better opportunity for me,” she said. “At the time, honestly, I wasn’t throwing as far as I wanted.”
After the debacle that was her Tokyo Olympics, Echikunwoke plunged into depression for a few months. She credits her faith and her support system for lifting her spirits and persuading her to return to the hammer throw.
Since receiving permission to represent the U.S., Echikunwoke has emerged as maybe America’s top hammer thrower. And the unsponsored athlete has done it all while working full-time at a Cincinnati communications company to support herself.
Could Echikunwoke have done this in Tokyo three years ago? Could she have medaled for Nigeria had she gotten the chance to compete?
“I think it could have happened three years ago,” she said, “but I’m happy it happened now.”
