“Yemisi Ogunleye consistently at a high level,” was the title of the German Athletics Association’s preview of the women’s shot put before the Olympic Games in Paris. The following two paragraphs went on to say that the 25-year-old, who only threw over 19 meters for the first time last year, had stabilized at the 19-meter level this year. The top eight were “definitely within reach” for Ogunleye at the Olympic Games. Finally, there was a reference to “even more on a great day.” At the Indoor World Championships, the Mannheim athlete had finally attracted attention with 20.19 meters and second place. But that was indoors.
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And now? Yemisi Ogunleye, born in Bellheim in Rhineland-Palatinate, 1.85 meters tall, mother German, father Nigerian, nicknamed “Yemi”, is an Olympic champion. “I simply don’t have the words: Now we are Olympic champions, it is so unbelievable,” she said afterwards in the ZDFreferring directly to her team led by trainer Iris Manke-Reimers. In the sixth and final attempt, Ogunleye had thrown her best distance of the evening, using her spin technique to get the four-kilogram ball exactly to the 20-meter line. It was the first time she had ever let her heavy equipment fly so far in the open air.
Celebrating her triumph at the Stade de France with a German flag: Yemisi Ogunleye.
Maddison-Lee Wesche from New Zealand, who had previously led, could no longer counterattack and Ogunleye could not believe what she had just achieved in front of 70,000 spectators in the Stade de France. She clapped her hands in front of her face in disbelief, grabbed a German flag and cried tears of joy. The Paris stadium director played Germany’s new stadium favorite hit “Völlig losgelöst” over the arena loudspeakers.
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Sensational Olympic champion Ogunleye: In sport, she found strength to fight against the racism she experienced in her childhood. “Because of my father’s skin color, I was the only black person in primary school and had to go through unpleasant experiences,” she told the SWR last year. “As a child and young girl, I didn’t know who I was. I accepted what others said about me as my identity.” Then came sport, first gymnastics, then the switch to athletics and the heptathlon, and after a serious knee injury, finally the focus on shot put. “I noticed that I was strong at sport. The other children couldn’t tease me here because I was better than them,” she remembers.
“God, this is a moment you promised me”
Faith also gives her strength. The athlete from MTG Mannheim regularly goes to the Christ Gospel City Church in Karlsruhe and sings in the church choir. The church’s motto: “We are Christians from different countries and cultures who want to make a difference in the world around us by integrating our faith into everyday life.” Ogunleye then explains the moment before her gold strike in the ZDF with a spiritual experience: “I just felt such an incredible peace in that moment that was not of this earth,” she said. “I went into the ring, raised my hands and said: God, this is a moment that you promised me.”
A short time later, she, who had finished tenth at the World Championships last year and third at the European Championships a few weeks before Paris, won Olympic gold in the shot put, becoming the first German since Astrid Kumbernuss 28 years ago. Ogunleye had the kind of “great day” that the DLV had also hoped for beforehand.
