Tobi Amusan, the current 100-meter hurdles world, Commonwealth, and African champion, has admitted that before winning the world championship, she almost quit athletics and intended to return to school.
The 25-year-old athlete won the gold medal in the 100-meter hurdles event at the 2022 World Championships last year, breaking the previous record of 12.12 seconds in the semi-final and 12.06 seconds in the final. She is the first Nigerian to win a world championship in athletics.
Prior to defending her Diamond League Trophy in Zurich with a new meet record time of 12.29 seconds, she had won gold in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Prior to her record-breaking year (2022), Tobi Amusan said that she always finished fourth, which she said was extremely exhausting. She argued that even when they think it’s over, individuals may still do amazing things.
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The Ogun-born hurdler claimed in a conversation with Justin Tuckey that winning the gold medal in the 100-meter hurdles at the World Championships in Oregon marked a turning point in her career. She said that she had decided to give up athletics and return to school.
Amusan declared: “That was the moment of ‘did I just do that?’. But yes, it was months, years, and a crazy amount of training and hard work that people saw in 12secs. Sweat, tears, heartbreaks and on the verge of quitting literally every other year. You know seeing it unfold at that moment, with my coach in the stands was just ‘ma we did it’, you know it was just crazy,” Amusan said.
“That year, I was like if something doesn’t go right… And I felt like it was what actually got me into doing my Masters because I was looking forward to what if the season doesn’t go right? In as much as we want to do great things, God approves whatever thing we want to do, but then it’s more of I’ve been putting in the work and showing up every year and it was just fourth, fourth, so I was just tired,” Amusan added.
“It was a moment of God, you can still do something even when you’re broken and you feel like it’s over, because 2022 was supposed to be like my quit year.
“I mean if God doesn’t want to show up I can as well do something with my energy. So, it was just the moment I wanted to quit and God just showed up miraculously, so it was a huge moment for myself, my coach, my family and everyone who supported me.”
