SE: Pursuit of “Olympic Standard” Brings Anigbata to Manhattan
Jan 07, 2021 | Track & Field, Sports Extra
By: Austin Siegel
She's going to jump this weekend. On a different continent, in a different year and despite the obstacles that come with chasing an Olympic dream in a pandemic.
In her first season with K-State Track & Field, Anigbata Grace Chinonyelum is still doing the thing that put her on the map at the 2019 African Games.
You don't become the triple jump champion of an entire continent by taking days off.
"That was my first time competing against all the other countries in Africa," Anigbata said. "To be honest with you, the day before my competition, I was nervous. In the morning, before going to the track, I couldn't eat. I wasn't thinking about food."
In Morocco, at the 53,000 seat Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Anigbata actually did pretty well for someone who just skipped breakfast.
Wearing the green-and-white of her native Nigeria, she jumped 13.76 in the women's triple jump to win the gold medal, defeating a field of Olympians and Commonwealth Game athletes.
Even at just 20-years-old, Anigbata didn't exactly come out of nowhere that afternoon in Morocco. She had already grabbed a gold medal in the triple jump at the 2018 African Championships and was Nigeria's triple jump champion when she was only a teenager.
But the African Games were still a coronation that Anigbata didn't see coming.
"I wasn't going in there with the mindset of, 'Let me just win the gold' or something like that. I was going in there with the mindset that I have to make the Olympic standard," Anigbata said. "On the other hand, I was a little scared. My coach wasn't there…I didn't have the opportunity to have someone who could tell me, 'You're not doing this right,' but still, I believed in myself."
In more ways than one, that's what brought Anigbata thousands of miles from home to Manhattan.
After beginning her college career at the JUCO level with nearby Cloud County, Anigbata joined the Wildcats in 2020 and competed in last month's K-State Winter Invitational.
Her first NCAA meet came in an empty Ahearn Field House, but making her K-State debut brought back the same feelings from the day in Morocco that changed Anigbata's career.
"On Friday, the day before my competition, I was like, 'Wow, I'm really going to be able to compete.' That was the greatest moment," she said. "Especially to put on purple."
Anigbata began that morning the same way she starts every meet day, blasting some "worship music" that helps take her mind off the competition. A little coffee doesn't hurt either.
Going into the day with her thoughts on bigger things than jumping, Anigbata was ready for her first meet in Manhattan.
She cleared 13.07 to grab first place in the women's triple jump and got her K-State career off to a historic start. It was the fifth-longest indoor triple jump in program history. Given the circumstances, the only thing more exciting might be where Anigbata goes from here.
She spent her first two years in college without access to an indoor track, and when the Kansas winter set in at Cloud County, Anigbata worked out in a gym and treated indoor competitions as a chance to practice.
Growing up in a small village in the Omor municipality of Nigeria – and she's careful to emphasize the word "small" – Anigbata knew that jumping for a school in the United States would be an important step in her athletic career.
"My coach back home in Nigeria told me that if I continue to jump well, a school in the U.S. is going to come for you," she said. "I started watching NCAA meets and I was like, 'I can't wait to be there and jump with these people.' That was the most important thing that motivated me."
She began by focusing on the high jump, just throwing in the triple jump to mix things up.
After Anigbata barely missed the mark she needed for to qualify for the World Junior Championships in the high jump, she began to focus more and more on her other event.
When Nigeria hosted the African Championships in 2018, Anigbata was ready for the moment.
More specifically, she decided "Let's go for something big."
On that day, "big" was a jump of 14.02 that, if Anigbata had done it at the 2016 Games in Rio, would have seen her miss out on the Olympic Final by just one spot.
Deciding to focus on the triple jump? That ended up being a pretty good decision.
Now that she's finally able to begin her next adventure at K-State, Anigbata can continue her pursuit of the same Olympic standard she's been chasing since the African Games.
When Anigbata is back at Ahearn Field House this weekend, the Olympics might feel like a world away. But that wouldn't be anything new.
"When I was growing up in Nigeria, I never thought there would be school," she said. "K-State is really nice and we're getting the work done to make sure that the Olympics, by God's grace, will be there."
She's going to jump this weekend. On a different continent, in a different year and despite the obstacles that come with chasing an Olympic dream in a pandemic.
In her first season with K-State Track & Field, Anigbata Grace Chinonyelum is still doing the thing that put her on the map at the 2019 African Games.
You don't become the triple jump champion of an entire continent by taking days off.
"That was my first time competing against all the other countries in Africa," Anigbata said. "To be honest with you, the day before my competition, I was nervous. In the morning, before going to the track, I couldn't eat. I wasn't thinking about food."
In Morocco, at the 53,000 seat Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Anigbata actually did pretty well for someone who just skipped breakfast.
Wearing the green-and-white of her native Nigeria, she jumped 13.76 in the women's triple jump to win the gold medal, defeating a field of Olympians and Commonwealth Game athletes.
Even at just 20-years-old, Anigbata didn't exactly come out of nowhere that afternoon in Morocco. She had already grabbed a gold medal in the triple jump at the 2018 African Championships and was Nigeria's triple jump champion when she was only a teenager.
But the African Games were still a coronation that Anigbata didn't see coming.
"I wasn't going in there with the mindset of, 'Let me just win the gold' or something like that. I was going in there with the mindset that I have to make the Olympic standard," Anigbata said. "On the other hand, I was a little scared. My coach wasn't there…I didn't have the opportunity to have someone who could tell me, 'You're not doing this right,' but still, I believed in myself."
In more ways than one, that's what brought Anigbata thousands of miles from home to Manhattan.
After beginning her college career at the JUCO level with nearby Cloud County, Anigbata joined the Wildcats in 2020 and competed in last month's K-State Winter Invitational.
Her first NCAA meet came in an empty Ahearn Field House, but making her K-State debut brought back the same feelings from the day in Morocco that changed Anigbata's career.
"On Friday, the day before my competition, I was like, 'Wow, I'm really going to be able to compete.' That was the greatest moment," she said. "Especially to put on purple."
Anigbata began that morning the same way she starts every meet day, blasting some "worship music" that helps take her mind off the competition. A little coffee doesn't hurt either.
Going into the day with her thoughts on bigger things than jumping, Anigbata was ready for her first meet in Manhattan.
She cleared 13.07 to grab first place in the women's triple jump and got her K-State career off to a historic start. It was the fifth-longest indoor triple jump in program history. Given the circumstances, the only thing more exciting might be where Anigbata goes from here.
She spent her first two years in college without access to an indoor track, and when the Kansas winter set in at Cloud County, Anigbata worked out in a gym and treated indoor competitions as a chance to practice.
Growing up in a small village in the Omor municipality of Nigeria – and she's careful to emphasize the word "small" – Anigbata knew that jumping for a school in the United States would be an important step in her athletic career.
"My coach back home in Nigeria told me that if I continue to jump well, a school in the U.S. is going to come for you," she said. "I started watching NCAA meets and I was like, 'I can't wait to be there and jump with these people.' That was the most important thing that motivated me."
She began by focusing on the high jump, just throwing in the triple jump to mix things up.
After Anigbata barely missed the mark she needed for to qualify for the World Junior Championships in the high jump, she began to focus more and more on her other event.
When Nigeria hosted the African Championships in 2018, Anigbata was ready for the moment.
More specifically, she decided "Let's go for something big."
On that day, "big" was a jump of 14.02 that, if Anigbata had done it at the 2016 Games in Rio, would have seen her miss out on the Olympic Final by just one spot.
Deciding to focus on the triple jump? That ended up being a pretty good decision.
Now that she's finally able to begin her next adventure at K-State, Anigbata can continue her pursuit of the same Olympic standard she's been chasing since the African Games.
When Anigbata is back at Ahearn Field House this weekend, the Olympics might feel like a world away. But that wouldn't be anything new.
"When I was growing up in Nigeria, I never thought there would be school," she said. "K-State is really nice and we're getting the work done to make sure that the Olympics, by God's grace, will be there."
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