World Championships’ silver medallist, Ese Brume, is not hiding her feelings about the challenges she will face in the fast-approaching Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Brume is among seven Nigerian track and field athletes returning to the Olympics stage this year. Others are World Record Holder in women’s 100m hurdles, Tobiloba Amusan, Shot Put thrower, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, quartermiler, Omolara Omotosho-Ogunmakinju, veteran home-based star, Patience Okon George, Ifeanyi Ojeli and U.S.-based sprinter, Ushoritse Itshekiri.
Speaking with The Guardian, yesterday, Brume, who won a bronze medal at the last Olympic Games in Tokyo, said: “Every athlete going to Paris is aware of the huge challenges ahead. As an athlete, who has seen it all at the world stage and at Olympics level, I have the belief that something good awaits me in Paris. My dream is to make good use of the opportunity and dig out the medal where ever it is.
“If, in the end, whatever colour of medal I get, I will be satisfied with it. The first thing is to put in my very best and make it to the final stage. I have done it before, and I am going to Paris to do it again.”
Last weekend, the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) listed Brume and 34 other athletes for the quadrennial event. The athletes were expected to have departed for Germany on a training tour ahead of the Paris Olympics.
The soft-spoken Brume is seeking to become the first Nigerian track and field athlete to win medals in the same individual event in the history of the Games. She is making her third trip to the Olympics.
Brume holds the African record at 7.17m.
At Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Brume was Nigeria’s last athlete standing after other track and field stars (except football) fell by the way side. It was her debut at the Olympics and Brume flew all the way to the final, finishing fifth in the process.
Four years later in Tokyo, Brume did not just make it to the final, but mounted the podium, grabbing a bronze to complete a ‘grand slam’ of wins by Nigerian long jumpers in the event. Brume’s bronze medal win in Tokyo was the third after Chioma Ajunwa (gold at Atlanta ‘96) and Blessing Okagbare (silver at Beijing 2008).
“This Paris 2024 could just be my year. I know it will not be easy, but with God on my side, anything can happen,” she said.
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