Anuoluwapo Juwon Opeyori
Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria
Badminton
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I am Anuoluwapo Juwon Opeyori, Africa's highest-ranked player as well as the current and 3x African champion.
Since I was a kid I have been dreaming about making history for Nigeria and Africa. To show the world who we Nigerians are, that Africans are elite and can compete. To change the perception of Black and African people across Asia!!
This lifelong journey all started in the simplest way, running through the streets with my friends, eager to play football with my friends, it only took one moment one day to change my life. I heard that iconic woosh and ping of shuttles being hit and flying through the air. Unaware of what was about to happen, we followed the sound, then we saw it, badminton. The craziest sport I had ever seen and I was captivated by it. An invite from the coach and that sealed the deal, no more football, I was back playing badminton every day I could.
I wasn't the best player in our group but I and my brother trained until we were, going on runs, figuring out new techniques, watching Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei to see how the pros did it. We worked our way to beat every player in our club. One invite later and I was competing in our area, then our region, then nationally.
It was this early success and my family's circumstances that gave me the hunger to push forward, to hope for a better prosperous future. I and my brother made the decision to move to Lagos, to sleep on the floor of a local shop so we could get better training. I lay on that dusty floor every night, sore from training, dreaming and imagining lifting a trophy, being Nigerian champion, African champion even a world champion... It was in these tough times that I found out how much I really wanted it and what I was willing to do to get there. I just needed the opportunity.
After months of training and sleeping on that floor, my brother made a decision. He would stop training and get a job to fund my training and competitions. He put aside his dream to help train and fund me to achieve mine!
It was because of his sacrifice that I was able to compete in the sports festivals and make a name for myself, eventually sitting down and hearing those glorious words, you're in! You are part of the national team. An absolute dream!
In just a few months I was competing in my first international tournaments, it didn't go to plan but was so valuable for my journey, to know what it took to be an international player. I took the loss and realised I needed to be better, to do things differently. Back to training and I started studying the other players, working out how they won, what they did well, and asked them to teach me. This was the change that took me from an ok player in the national team to one of the best in the country.
In just a few years I became the Nigerian national champion followed by the African champion!
These were incredible honours and led me to qualify for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics in doubles as the African mandatory entry. A great honour that showed we could compete at the elite level but it felt hollow with no crowds and some tough defeats. I was still hungry to show more of what I could do.
This brings us to today! To the opportunity of turning the dream into reality!