Page 41 - The Gazette Autumn 2024

Kewe returned, a little more mature and experienced and was accepted into nursing on her second selection board. She doesn’t regret missing a year as she made friends for life in her nursing cohort.
It was Kewe’s mum who spotted the army stall at Birmingham City University, and she was also instrumental in finding her daughter a husband! Mum had bumped into Tommy’s mother by chance, and they rekindled their friendship. This led to the two families going on holiday together to Germany and the rest is history.
Kewe had competed in cross country as a child and later for Marshall Milton Keynes Athletic Club focusing on triple jump, high jump and pole vault. Since joining the army, she competes in interservice events, and somebody involved with this flagged up that there was a Nigerian athlete called Simidele Adeagbo, who competes in Monobob (one woman bobsleigh) and previously skeleton and was looking for a partner to tackle the two-woman event.
“She basically needed a teammate to be her ‘brake woman’ in two-person bobsleigh and it had to be someone who was athletic and had a Nigerian passport,” explains Kewe. She didn’t have a passport at the time, but as her mum is from Nigeria, she applied, and it was granted.
In 2018, Simi became the first Nigerian Winter Olympian and the first African and black woman to
Our aim was to get down the track without crashing. And we did.
compete in skeleton at the Olympics. In 2022, she became the first African athlete to win an international bobsleigh race. She is poised to break more historic barriers in the sport of bobsleigh on the road to the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
Was Kewe intimidated by the idea of teaming up with someone of such reputation? Actually no: “I was in contact with her throughout the process, and she is such a lovely and humble person, she didn’t put any pressure on me. She’s so resilient and able to take whatever life throws at her. I was inspired and I’m delighted to say that we became like sisters after our experience together.”
Thanks in part to a grant from the QARANC Association, Kewe travelled to Innsbruck in Austria, with Tommy and her parents also in tow to act as their crew, to compete alongside Simi.
Simi had only ever driven a one-woman bobsleigh, so this was completely new to both women. They had a week’s training and then straight into the Europa Cup Competitions. “Our aim was to get down the track without crashing. And we did,” says Kewe, but things didn’t go without a hitch.
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