Temitope Adeshina’s journey to the top exemplifies patience and perseverance. Her steady rise on the Nigerian High Jump scene reached new heights in 2023, when she achieved a Personal Best (PB) of 1.94m and was crowned Nigeria’s national champion for the second consecutive year.
Although always athletic, her true journey began at the Baba Ijebu Inter-School Athletics Championships in 2014, where she placed second behind Esther Isa. It was there that Coach Kola Adebayo first noticed her potential. Impressed by her height and talent, he invited her to train with his athletes. Unfortunately, Adeshina soon lost her phone, leaving her unable to reconnect with him.
Undeterred, she continued training on her own, managing to visit the stadium only on weekends due to her academics. During one of these visits, she met Coach Adu Uruemu and started sprint training under his guidance. However, she found sprinting challenging, and Coach Adu eventually suggested she meet a high jump coach—who, as fate would have it, was Coach Kola.
This serendipitous reconnection set the course for her future. Under Coach Kola’s mentorship, Temitope began competing in more school championships and progressed to larger meets and national competitions throughout Nigeria, solidifying her place in the sport.
At the national level, she didn’t meet immediate success, but steadily improved as the years went by. She had won a Bronze medal at the National Sports Festival (NSF) in 2018 with her then-PB of 1.70m and by the end of the following year, she had improved by 10 more centimetres.
Like many athletes, Adeshina faced setbacks in 2020 as COVID-19 restrictions prevented her from competing. By 2021, however, she emerged as Nigeria’s leading high jumper, winning her first major title at the NSF in Benin. At the Nigerian Olympic Trials, she finished in 2nd place, narrowly missing out on 1st to Esther Isa, a student at Middle Tennessee State University. Notably, both athletes were discovered together in 2014 and were best friends.
In 2022, Adeshina won her first international medal at the African Athletics Championships in Mauritius, narrowly missing out on GOLD to Ghana’s Rose Yeboah.
By then, she was a formidable force, winning her first National Championship with an impressive leap of 1.88m. In the process, she bested her friend and rival, Esther Isa, the defending champion, who also cleared the same height but took more attempts at the winning mark. Adeshina went on to represent Nigeria at the Commonwealth Games, where she reached the final, and closed out the year with a second NSF GOLD in Asaba.
With only a handful of competitions held in Nigeria in 2023, Adeshina’s second appearance of the year came late in the season, in June. She stunned everyone at the Lagos Athletics Series with an unexpected performance, clearing a remarkable PB of 1.94m which, at the time, was the second-highest jump in Nigerian High Jump history.
Reflecting on this pivotal moment in her career, she recalled the skepticism surrounding her achievement: “There was a time I jumped 1.94m in Nigeria, and there was no video evidence.” Determined to silence the doubters, she knew she needed to replicate her success to put any questions about her ability to rest.
With a scholarship to Texas Tech, she was thrilled at the chance to compete in the NCAA for the first time. Regarding it as a once-in-a lifetime opportunity, she said “They have a lot of facilities, and this year’s indoor competition will be my first indoors ever, so I look forward to that.”
Adeshina took the NCAA by storm! Quiet and unassuming, she made a bold statement on her home turf at the Corky Classic in Texas, propelling Nigerian women’s high jump to new heights with a National Record (NR) of 1.96m. She surpassed the previous national records of 1.95m outdoors and 1.93m indoors, both set by Doreen Amata.
This was only her second competition since arriving in the U.S. to further her academic and athletic careers, and just a week earlier, she had started the year with a modest 1.83m, tying for first place with her teammate. This time, however, there was no contest—she blew the competition away, breaking the Texas Tech school record and immediately rising to the top of the global leaderboard for 2024.
Her transition from Nigeria to the U.S. was smooth, she said, thanks to the welcoming community at Texas Tech. “The people at Texas Tech made things easy for me. Trust me, they are nice people.” As she adjusted to her new environment, she kept a taste of home close, often visiting the African market where she shopped for her Nigerian meals.
While her ambition to qualify for the Olympics was clear from the start, it became even more evident after she delivered a strong start to the season. She was just 1 centimetre away from Olympic qualification.
From there, she won her first major title in the U.S., claiming the Big 12 Indoor crown, and progressed to the NCAA Indoor Championships, where she finished 4th. Outdoors, she showcased even more class, winning consecutive meets and securing her second major title at the Big 12 Championships in Texas.
At the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Oregon, took the Nigerian High Jump record to new heights, rising over a new PB of 1.97m to claim Bronze. With that, she hit automatic qualification for the Olympic Games and punched her ticket to Paris. A week later, she won her third national title in Benin a week later, followed by a Silver medal at the African Championships the week after. She then went on to Paris where she made her Olympic debut.
With the 2025 indoor season underway, Adeshina will aim to dominate the women’s High Jump once again, not just in Africa but also in the NCAA.
She has the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of legends like Blessing Okagbare (UTEP) and, more recently, Ruth Usoro, whose Texas Tech School Records in the Long Jump and Triple Jump remain unbroken.
