What if I told you I was meant to be the Tobi Amusan you know now, but my teachers did not believe in me?😔 Apparently, that's not the story of Blessing Okagbare, the woman I adore in track and field when growing up. If you've heard of that name before and do not know her story, this is her story.⬇️ @mountain214 was born on the 9th of October, 1988, in Sapele, Delta State, of Urhobo heritage, the last child of her mother, raised by her father after her parents divorced when she was still little, and she lost her mother in 2005. Her teachers saw her athletic physique and encouraged her to try sports so she played football in secondary school before switching to track and field in 2004. She won medals in long jump, triple jump and high jump at the Nigerian school championship, all three. She was about to finish her OND at a polytechnic in Nigeria when a scholarship came and took her to the University of Texas at El Paso, where, as a Nigerian, of course, she dominated, completing a 100m and long jump double at the NCAA championships, undefeated. At 19, she stood on the Olympics podium in Beijing with a bronze medal in long jump, and that was just the beginning.🤩 She went on to win two gold medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, set a games record of 10.85 seconds in the 100m, held African records in both the 100m and 200m, and holds the Guinness World Record for the most Diamond League appearances by an athlete, 67 times between 2010 and 2018. Today, she runs the Blessing Okagbare Foundation, mentoring and financially supporting young athletes from underprivileged backgrounds, which tells you that even after everything, she chose to give back. She Ran Fast!🏃🏾‍♀️🤩 Every Saturday, we celebrate female sports icons, Nigerian, African, documented or forgotten, who competed their way into history and gave women's sport a new meaning. ➖ Do you know someone whose story needs to be told? Drop her name, let's talk about her. I am Gloria Eniola Akinyemi, building Nigeria's #1 safe space for Female athletes. ✊ #Ria