U.S.’s Annette Echikunwoke trusted Christ on lengthy journey to hammer throw Olympic silver
By Kevin Mercer Aug 7, 2024
Annette Echikunwoke of the USA takes a posture of prayer earlier than being given her silver medal within the girls’s hammer throw, Aug. 6, 2024. (AP Picture/Matthias Schrader)
On Tuesday on the Paris Olympics, Annette Echikunwoke made historical past. She turned the first woman from the United States ever to win an Olympic medal in the hammer throw, when she secured silver with a distance of 75.48 meters.
Canada’s Camryn Rogers won gold with a distance of 76.97 meters whereas China’s Zhao Jie gained bronze at 74.27.
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The FIRST American girl to medal in Olympic hammer throw! 🥈
Annette Nneka Echikunwoke has made historical past. #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/WOkGwRijKa
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 6, 2024
“I believe [this medal] might have occurred three years in the past, however I’m blissful it’s occurring now,” Echikunwoke mentioned afterward, according to the Associated Press. “I really feel like every little thing occurs for a motive, even when it’s dangerous or good or ugly or regardless of the case could also be. That is stunning. … It doesn’t really feel actual proper now. I can’t actually put it into phrases.”
The 28-year-old former Cincinnati Bearcat from Pickerington, Ohio, was set to compete three years in the past within the Tokyo Olympics for Nigeria, the place her dad and mom had been born. She had arrived in Tokyo and was days away from stepping onto the sphere, however her Olympic dream was dashed earlier than she might even stroll within the opening ceremony.
“I get a knock on my door from the throws coach for Nigeria and he tells us that we may be ineligible to compete,” Echikunwoke said in a video series with the Jesus Film Project, a ministry of Cru. “… On my birthday, July 29, they formally advised us that we couldn’t compete.”
Echikunwoke and nine other Nigerian track and field athletes had been declared ineligible as a result of the nation’s athletics federation had failed to tell them of obligatory out-of-competition doping assessments within the lead-up to the Olympics. None of them had examined constructive for a banned substance, but none of them might compete.
What resulted was a interval of dismay as questions swirled about her life and her unsure future within the sport. She had put in a lot work and a lot time with nothing to point out for it. She questioned whether or not she ought to hand over on hammer throwing altogether.
She defined her mindset on the time: “What made it most painful was once I was speaking with God, it was like, ‘God, I’m doing this as a result of You known as me to do that. I didn’t even wish to do that post-collegiately, and now that is occurring.’”
It was God, Echikunwoke says, who finally sustained her throughout her grief and disappointment, and revealed to her that hammer throwing was certainly precisely what she ought to do.
“I really like hammer throwing as a result of when I’m throwing, I’m rising. I’m being challenged and stretched, however in a great way. In a God means. In a means He’s known as me to be,” she said in the video series.
Echikunwoke initially selected Nigeria over the USA as a result of she believed there was much less competitors standing in her means on the trail to the Olympics. After the error in Tokyo, nevertheless, she switched to the USA.
She forgave Nigeria’s athletics federation, certified for the Paris Video games with the U.S. group, and competed from a spot of freedom in Christ.
“Attending to know Jesus, that’s a turning level in my life,” she said in the video series. “That’s the place I’ve skilled hope, confidence, peace in my life, and that’s sustained me via the trials, via the Olympics, and thru life. … Jesus is all the time with you.”
Echikunwoke writes that she’s “Trusting Him” in her Instagram bio and mentions her religion in a few of her posts.
“I do know that that is what God has known as me to do,” she mentioned. “This isn’t who I’m.”
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