--- title: Nigeria's First Bobsled Team Arrives at the Opening Ceremony description: The members of the Nigerian bobsled team made their 2018 Winter Olympics debut at the Opening Ceremony Friday, and people were so excited. canonical: https://time.com/5142773/nigerian-bobsled-team-opening-ceremony-winter-olympics-2018/ author: Jennifer Calfas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-10T02:48:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T08:57:35.082Z article:section: Sports og:title: Nigeria’s First Bobsled Team Arrived to Spread Excitement Across the Internet og:description: Fans cheered Nigeria's first Winter Olympic team og:url: https://time.com/5142773/nigerian-bobsled-team-opening-ceremony-winter-olympics-2018/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2b0f3f6cca46fd0/698927017cdbacc00ed5be8e/nigerian-bobsled-team-opening-ceremony.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4130 og:image:height: 2323 og:image:alt: 2018 Winter Olympic Games - Opening Ceremony og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Nigeria’s First Bobsled Team Arrived to Spread Excitement Across the Internet twitter:description: Fans cheered Nigeria's first Winter Olympic team twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2b0f3f6cca46fd0/698927017cdbacc00ed5be8e/nigerian-bobsled-team-opening-ceremony.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Nigeria’s First-Ever Bobsled Team Has Arrived at the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony and People Are Really Excited > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: Meet The Nigerian Bobsled Team Making History at the 2018 Olympics [Watch (HLS stream): Meet The Nigerian Bobsled Team Making History at the 2018 Olympics](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/E2cYJx3U.m3u8) (3:59)  _Published 2018-01-16. The Nigerian Women's Bobsled team will be the first bobsled team, male or female, from the continent of Africa to compete at the Winter Olympics._ by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Feb 10, 2018 2:48 AM UTC by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Feb 10, 2018 2:48 AM UTC The Winter Olympic dreams for [Nigeria’s first-ever bobsled team](http://time.com/5104583/watch-the-nigerian-bobsled-teams-olympic-journey/) became a reality on Feb. 9 when the team stepped into the arena [during the 2018 Opening Ceremony](http://time.com/5141157/pyeongchang-winter-olympics-opening-ceremony-tv/) in PyeongChang, South Korea. The bobsled team — composed of athletes Seun Adigun, Akuoma Omeoga and Ngozi Onwumere — and Nigeria’s history-making skeleton athlete Simidele Adeagbo are the first to compete for the country at the Winter Olympics, and viewers watching [NBC’s primetime broadcast of the Opening Ceremony](http://time.com/money/5136248/pyeongchang-opening-ceremony-2018-watch-online-free/) Friday night could barely contain their excitement. > [](https://twitter.com/Kierstan77/status/962141758556659712) > [](https://twitter.com/FemiOke/status/962142718360252421) > [](https://twitter.com/Phridee/status/962141739275444226) > [](https://twitter.com/TheJRLuna/status/962141743423606784) Onwumere carried Nigeria’s flag at the Opening Ceremony, where the 92 competing countries participated in the parade of nations following a performance honoring South Korea’s history and culture. This year, more athletes than ever before are competing at the Winter Olympics, representing more countries than have ever competed in the Winter Games. The Nigerian bobsled team and Adeagbo are just four athletes [making history](http://time.com/5106521/2018-winter-olympic-athletes-breaking-barriers/) this year at the Winter Olympics. But the spirit exuded by the bobsled team clearly struck a chord with viewers. > [](https://twitter.com/AlphaFemale24/status/962141760129503232) > [](https://twitter.com/katrinaline/status/962150035218714624) > [](https://twitter.com/sophido/status/962148844913025026) > [](https://twitter.com/Dai%5FKitty/status/962146646460129281) > [](https://twitter.com/omo%5Fogbomo/status/962144936924778496) Some fans also voiced their interest in a remake of _Cool Runnings_, the 1993 film that portrayed the Jamaican bobsled team’s historic qualification for the 1988 Winter Olympics. > [](https://twitter.com/chasspod/status/962141758963572736) > [](https://twitter.com/RissKiss%5F13/status/962141754064588801) The members of the Nigerian bobsled team and Adeagbo had arduous journeys to the Winter Olympics. The bobsled team formed a GoFundMe in 2016 to aid their journey, and Adeagbo tried skeleton for the first time after failing to qualify twice at the U.S. Olympic Trials in the triple jump in 2004 and 2008. Adigun, the bobsled team member who initially formed the GoFundMe, created a wooden sled to train, and she and her teammates paused their careers to pursue their Olympics dreams. “I can’t wait to get on that stage and give people every ounce of our passion,” Adigun[ told TIME](http://time.com/5104583/watch-the-nigerian-bobsled-teams-olympic-journey/) of competing at the Olympics. ## Transcript [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ MUSIC ] You don't even have to be in Nigeria to be confused as to why three Nigerians, who live in Texas, are competing in the sport of bobsled > We had a barbecue lunch. She told me that she wanted to create a bobsled team. I guess I'm a sporadic thinker or I just make rash decisions, I don't know. But I was like, " Sure ", and then afterwards, I was like I need to call somebody else, I get like a second, third or fourth opinion. Once she explained that this is for a continent I was like yeah, it would be absurd not to do it. And I was like My god I think [ UNKNOWN ] just created a team Our team dynamic is pretty unique Like work definitely, like the fun loving group of women that it's very enjoyable being around us Well at the same time, we definitely know how to get to work. I wouldn't have to think about the idea of doing it all over again with anyone else. The dynamic works. Cool Running! Cool Running's reference is just something we get all the time every single day. I mean if I had a dollar For every time I got that I would not mean to fundraise ever again, but it's honorable it's beautiful, because here we are thirty years later you know from when these men took this little faith and just something so special and here others are going to compare it to something of such high stature like that's just it's an honor it. [ NOISE ] [ MUSIC ] It's difficult being the only person who knows anything about the sport for an entire continent. The learning curve was huge. The first thing I think we learned [ UNKNOWN ] to hit this [ UNKNOWN ] on the may flower which is just this wooden tool that we used to help us [ UNKNOWN ] get the technique [ UNKNOWN ] hitting the slide. We spent a lot of time in the weight room and on the tractors working on speed and strength, getting stronger and getting faster We're used to [ UNKNOWN ] From track and field where we just get on the track and do our thing for 30 seconds max. But what Bob said, you're on the track almost like a whole entire work day. I didn't think that I, thought the sport would be so demanding in terms of physically having to move this sled up, you know all of the things that happen prior to actually getting into the sled and Racing. [ NOISE ] Here we go. You're doing stuff in cold weather, you're freezing, But eventually, it got easier and easier, things just kinda started to add up and click. And that's kind of how it is not when it's just like hey, we've only been doing this for a year and we're getting pretty good at it. [ UNKNOWN ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] I was raised a Nigerian in the United States. Being able to represent Nigeria has just been honorable, to say the least. How many people can say that they're going to the Olympics. One and two, putting a whole continent on their back and making this happen. Historically, you probably haven't seen a team from Africa for a very realistic reasons. No one is gonna associate a Sub- Saharan climate with ice or snow. If they can see now and visualize the fact that there are ways to do these things [ MUSIC ] My hope is that the floodgates will open and people will take to the sport and the sport will continue to grow. Amen. Although this is for Nigeria on the actual ballot, this is everything we represent. We represent a community of women Strong women. We represent United States, we represent Houston, we represent Chicago, Dallas, Minnesota, all the places where we have dedicated our lives to, or have been any way shape of forum, a part of our growth. This is for them, this is for you, this is for everyone. 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