On Tuesday at the Paris Olympics, Annette Echikunwoke made history. She became 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 while China’s Zhao Jie won bronze at 74.27.
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The FIRST American woman to medal in Olympic hammer throw! 🥈
Annette Nneka Echikunwoke has made history. #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/WOkGwRijKa
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 6, 2024
“I think [this medal] could have happened three years ago, but I’m happy it’s happening now,” Echikunwoke said afterward, according to the Associated Press. “I feel like everything happens for a reason, even if it’s bad or good or ugly or whatever the case may be. This is beautiful. … It doesn’t feel real right now. I can’t really put it into words.”
The 28-year-old former Cincinnati Bearcat from Pickerington, Ohio, was set to compete three years ago in the Tokyo Olympics for Nigeria, where her parents were born. She had arrived in Tokyo and was days away from stepping onto the field, but her Olympic dream was dashed before she could even walk in the opening ceremony.
“I get a knock on my door from the throws coach for Nigeria and he tells us that we might 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 officially told us that we couldn’t compete.”
Echikunwoke and nine other Nigerian track and field athletes had been declared ineligible because the country’s athletics federation had failed to inform them of mandatory out-of-competition doping tests in the lead-up to the Olympics. None of them had tested positive for a banned substance, yet none of them could compete.
What resulted was a period of dismay as questions swirled about her life and her uncertain future in the sport. She had put in so much work and so much time with nothing to show for it. She wondered whether she should give up on hammer throwing altogether.
She explained her mindset at the time: “What made it most painful was when I was talking with God, it was like, ‘God, I’m doing this because You called me to do this. I didn’t even want to do this post-collegiately, and now this is happening.'”
It was God, Echikunwoke says, who ultimately sustained her during her grief and disappointment, and revealed to her that hammer throwing was indeed exactly what she should do.
“I love hammer throwing because when I am throwing, I’m growing. I’m being challenged and stretched, but in a good way. In a God way. In a way He’s called me to be,” she said in the video series.
Echikunwoke originally chose Nigeria over the United States because she believed there was less competition standing in her way on the path to the Olympics. After the mistake in Tokyo, however, she switched to the United States.
She forgave Nigeria’s athletics federation, qualified for the Paris Games with the U.S. team, and competed from a place of freedom in Christ.
“Getting to know Jesus, that’s a turning point in my life,” she said in the video series. “That’s where I’ve experienced hope, confidence, peace in my life, and that’s sustained me through the trials, through the Olympics, and through life. … Jesus is always with you.”
Echikunwoke writes that she’s “Trusting Him” in her Instagram bio and mentions her faith in some of her posts.
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“I know that this is what God has called me to do,” she said. “This is not who I am.”
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