EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — The Ohio-born hammer thrower was days away from competing for Nigeria at the Tokyo Olympics when she was told it wouldn’t be possible.
He was prevented by an error from the federation, related to an anti-doping test. It was a cruel gift on his 25th birthday.
“My heart was beyond broken,” recalled Annette Echikunwoke.
He also did not get a chance to parade in the opening ceremony (his uniform did not arrive on time). The only memory he will have of the Games will be some kind of practice throw inside the hammer circle in the Olympic Stadium.
All these setbacks led to a change of country, an arduous task. His request was finally approved at the last minute before the US national championship.
He thus obtained a place in the World Championships in Athletics.
And he celebrated his ranking in a very American way: Eating a burger and fries at a fast food restaurant. There was no milkshake, yes, because his diet prevents him from dairy.
“I honestly felt like this was redemption,” Echikunwoke said of his arrival on the US team, for which he begins competing this Friday in Worlds hammer throw preliminaries. “I’m very grateful”.
Echiwunwoke grew up in Pickerington, Ohio. He has four younger brothers. His father Godwin works for the state government as an auditor. His mother Christiana is a nurse. They are both Nigerian.
Proud of her heritage, the University of Cincinnati pitcher decided to wear the green and white of Nigeria last summer in Tokyo. She earned a place by winning the championship in the African country.
But first came a rumor that something was missing, while the Nigerian team was training outside the city, a few days before the Games. They were apparent paperwork problems with pre-Games drug tests.
“I thought, ‘This can’t possibly be happening,’” Echikunwoke recalled.
As an NCAA athlete, she said she didn’t take drug tests as often, only in 2017, when she won the national indoor championship. But since other athletes were in a similar situation, she didn’t think there was a real problem.
“Not for a moment, that’s the craziest part. I think I always have a premonition when something is wrong,” she said.
Thus, the final decision was totally unexpected: the Athletics Integrity Unit ended up disqualifying her. A further 20 athletes, including 10 from Nigeria, were banned from the Olympics for failing to meet pre-Games anti-doping testing requirements.
The Unit requires athletes from countries deemed “high risk” for deficiencies in their anti-doping programs to undergo three random out-of-competition tests in the 10 months before a major event.
Echikunwoke explained that the Nigerian Athletics Federation failed to schedule proper testing for its athletes.
“We were left unaware of this whole testing issue until the very last minute, when we were helpless,” he wrote on Instagram.
The Federation did not respond to emails from The Associated Press requesting comment.
Around December, Echikunwoke turned to World Athletics, the governing body of world athletics, to notify them of his plans to move nations and compete for the United States. He thought that the procedure would be expedited.
It was not. She had to wait while he trained for nationals, which would be held in a matter of months.
News that the change was approved came in the early hours of June 22, one day before he was due to compete in Eugene, Oregon.
He boarded a flight from Ohio, with a stopover in Denver, and arrived that same night. He showed up the next day and hit 73.76 meters on his second throw, good enough for third place and a World Cup ticket.
Now he hopes to put on a good show and perhaps celebrate with another burger.