PYEONGCHANG, South Korea _ She stared down the mountain at a chute of ice, wondering if she had lost her mind for agreeing to what she was about to do.
Akuoma Omeoga was a college sprinter, not a bobsledder. She didn't know anything about bobsled growing up, only that it was a Winter Olympics sport and she remembers watching the movie "Cool Runnings" as a kid.
But she had made a pact, and so here she was, preparing to hurtle herself down the track in Park City, Utah.
She had never pushed a real bobsled before, much less zoomed 80 mph down a winding course. She hadn't even practiced jumping into a moving bobsled. All she kept thinking was, What happens if I don't make it inside?
But the Olympics were 13 months away and so ready, set, go.
"Apparently, I screamed, but I don't remember," Omeoga says.
She can laugh about her first run now because the ripple effect of a life decision opened a door she never could have dreamt.
The St. Paul, Minn., native, graduate of Irondale High School and former Gophers track athlete is part of the first Nigerian women's bobsled team at the Olympics. Competition began Tuesday morning.
Omeoga is a first-generation immigrant to parents who came to the United States for college, fell in love, married and raised four daughters, Akuoma their youngest.
Omeoga, 25, serves as the brakeman on the two-woman team. She pushes the bobsled at the top, stops it at the bottom and keeps her head down in between. This whole experience still feels surreal to her.
"This is crazier than anything I could have imagined," she says, standing outside the Athletes Village in the mountain cluster.
The Nigerian bobsledders have become Olympic stars before ever competing. They are sponsored by Visa and Under Armour, been featured in a Beats by Dre ad campaign, and have danced with Ellen DeGeneres as guests on her show. They are embraced as heroes in Nigeria, even though many in the African nation have never seen the sport and few understand it.
The team brought modest expectations to the Olympics in terms of results. They envision a broader impact.
"We want to promote a positive image for Nigeria," Omeoga says.
