Rhasidat Adeleke
Athletics
BIOGRAPHY
Rhasidat Adeleke became the first Irish athlete to reach an Olympic sprint final, finishing fourth in the women’s 400 metres at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in 49.28 seconds.
She was also part of the women’s 4×400 metres relay team that finished fourth in the final in a national record of 3:19.90, 0.18 seconds away from bronze.
In 2026 she won silver in the 200 metres at the European Championships in Birmingham, running an Irish record of 22.28 behind Britain’s Amy Hunt. Two years earlier, at the European Championships in Rome, she won 400 metres silver in an Irish record of 49.07, still the fastest run by an Irish woman, and added gold in the mixed 4×400 metres relay and silver in the women’s 4×400. She had finished fourth in the 400 metres at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest.
Her underage record marked her out early. At 14 she won 200 metres silver and 4×100 metres relay bronze at the 2017 European Youth Olympic Festival in Győr, and returned to the same city a year later to take the European Under-18 200 metres title at 15. In 2019 she completed the 100 and 200 metres double at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Baku, and in 2021 won both sprints at the European Under-20 Championships in Tallinn, the first women’s sprint double there since 2011.
Adeleke grew up in Tallaght, Dublin, and was first spotted by a teacher at St Mark’s Primary School.
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