My first concern for Rhasidat Adeleke right now is that she’s not being entirely open or honest. Not just with herself, but with some of the people around her. Without more transparency, it’s hard to assess what exactly is going on.
Even her posting a message on Instagram on Monday night struck me as odd. Adeleke is one of Ireland’s most recognised and popular athletes and I don’t think putting out a vague message on social media was the best way to deal with her withdrawal from the World Athletics Championships.
She mentions lingering injuries and continuous setbacks, but nothing specific. It also appears to me that this was possibly the first time Athletics Ireland heard about it.
Then you look at some of the comments, and people are acting like it’s the end of the world. Or telling Adeleke how great she is and she’ll bounce back stronger. Sorry, but that’s not always what the athlete needs to hear in these difficult situations. A bit more realism is required.
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The lack of detail only makes the situation even more puzzling. All she had to say was, “I’d a hamstring injury, it was getting better, then I raced again, and it got worse”. I’m not saying that’s the problem. That’s just an example. I don’t understand why she’s being so secretive about it.
[ What’s behind Rhasidat Adeleke’s withdrawal from the World Championships?Opens in new window ]
There’s nothing wrong either with just saying the training hasn’t gone well, it’s been stop-start and that she’s just not fit enough to compete at the level expected. Athletes will answer all the questions when things are going well, but when things aren’t going well, they’re inclined to close up, shut themselves off.
At times, I was a bit like that myself. But when things start to go wrong, athletes need to find someone who tells them things they don’t want to hear and presents them with some options to make those changes.
I think Adeleke simply made some bad decisions this year. Lots of athletes get to this point in the season, and particularly this year, when the world championships in Tokyo are so late, when you keep thinking you’ve loads of time to get fit. Then suddenly there’s not that much time left.
Adeleke can’t go back to change things now, or do something different, so she needs to start planning a way out. No athlete will go through their career without setbacks like this. Adeleke turns 23 next week, is still very young, but she’s also at a critical juncture now.
It happened to me when, after years of progress, things suddenly started to unravel in 1996, in full public view, at the Atlanta Olympics. The big thing for me after that was to recognise what needed to change. And it probably took me two years to make those changes.
If I were Adeleke, I’d be taking out a pen and paper, writing down all the things that went right to this point and where things went wrong. Then decide what’s important in her career and how to turn things around and get back on track.
She also needs to get back to basics, forget everything that’s gone before, and start again. That’s what I did in 1997 and 1998. With a different coach, different people advising me. Because she needs someone outside of her circle to advise her, give her a bit of a reality check.
Her last race in London wasn’t that bad; 22.52 seconds for 200m is not far off what she ran at the same event in 2024. Was she injured again after that, or did something else happen? Again, there are many unknowns.
So it’s possible it’s more of a mental issue than anything physical. When you’re not up there at the top, and you’re used to that, it’s hard to fight for minor places and be happy with that.
I also wonder if she’s getting distracted by some of the things going on around her, which have nothing to do with athletics. To keep competing with the best, there’s always going to be a lot of work, and some things that you don’t enjoy doing. That also means getting an entirely independent view at times, someone who will tell you things you don’t want to hear. From an injury perspective, a lifestyle perspective, all those things.
You might listen to them, or you might not, but at least they’ll be more objective in how they are talking to you.
Maybe another option for Tokyo would have been to just focus on the relay when she realised her individual 400m aspirations weren’t working out. If she had the right mindset. That makes you realise, too, the relay will never be a high priority for her. But I think she could have considered that, taken a lot of the pressure off that way. Again, maybe people are telling her she’s better than the relay.
If, for some reason, she’s not happy with her current training environment in Texas, that may also have to change. There comes a time when an athlete needs to take ownership of their training and not just get told what to do every day and accept that. Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith went to Texas to train before the Olympics last year. It was all looking good for a while, then she suddenly returned to the UK. What wasn’t working for her?
It’s possible Adeleke needs a complete change of scenery. The college environment is not always conducive to a professional athlete. The college coach will always be distracted by something else, other obligations, that’s the reality of it.
So she’s always compromised in some ways. It’s okay to have that overlap for the first year or two, but when you’re fighting for attention with college students, and they’re not running well, it’s not the most positive environment to be around. If you lose momentum or never get it going, you can also become distracted by everything else going on around you.
The problem for Adeleke is that she doesn’t know anywhere else. It’s unlikely that she would want to train in Ireland, but Adeleke needs to find a place where she’s happy and has input in her training and racing.
It’s going to feel like a long time between now and the start of next season. My sense as an athlete always was to start the next season at a higher level again, but Adeleke has already fallen behind, has no results to build on from this year.
So it’s crucial when she does start back, she starts small, sets small goals. Just tick those lower-level boxes, and gradually work her way back to the top. You’re not going to land back at the top and suddenly win everything again.
If she’s honest with herself about that, she’ll soon be back to being the very best she can be.
