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Nigeria’s Simi Adeagbo is first African to win international bobsled race

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Nigeria's Simidele Adeagbo was a 2018 Olympian in Skeleton. (Photo by Tobias Hase/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Nigerian bobsledder Simidele Adeagbo became the first African, male or female, to win an international bobsled race when she came in first at Winterberg on Friday.

The 40-year-old Canadian-Nigerian won the women’s monobob at the Europe Cup in Germany and had to use her own flag during the medal ceremony because there was no Nigerian flag on hand.

“No matter how unexpected my victory may have been for some, it was a shining moment in which my dream became a reality,” Adeagbo wrote on Instagram.

In 2018, Adeagbo became the first Nigerian to compete at the Winter Olympics and the first to race in the Skeleton event when she finished in 20th in PyeongChang.

A University of Kentucky alum, she is seeking to qualify for the Beijing Games, which open on Feb. 4.