Trusting God’s Timeline: Olympic Athlete Makes U.S. History Despite Setbacks

Even after winning the Division I NCAA championship in 2017 in the weight throw, an indoor track and field event, Annette Echikunwoke was content just “doing well” as an athlete.

Growing up in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, Echikunwoke participated in several track and field events throughout high school and was eventually recruited to the University of Cincinnati. “I always felt God had wanted me to go there,” she shares, “so this made it perfectly clear to me that this was God’s plan.”

After arriving at the University of Cincinnati, Echikunwoke, who was raised in a Christian household, started attending an Assemblies of God church close to the campus. Peoples Church pastor, Chris Beard, says that Echikunwoke is an “on-fire follower of Jesus” and, despite her busy schedule, has always remained very involved as a church member.

Despite her recognizable athletic talent, Echikunwoke states that she never planned to compete professionally. And when it came to the hammer throw (roughly the outdoor version of the weight throw), she admits that she wasn’t very good her first year competing in the event.

But the next year, Echikunwoke made vast improvements and broke the school record multiple times.

“At the same time my own plans for myself started to fade, visions of success in track and field started to blossom,” she says.

Even though she was not comfortable with the thought of being a professional athlete, knowing how other friends she had who were professional athletes had struggled, the Lord began to ease her apprehensive mind.

“The more I was against it, the more the Lord affirmed the idea,” she states.

Then, after a conversation with her best friend, she says she started to seriously consider doing track and field after her college career concluded.

“I decided I didn’t want to limit what God could do, and I wanted to give Him the room to work through me however He wanted.”

Echikunwoke began looking at options and, because of her Nigerian heritage, decided that competing for the Nigerian team at the 2021 Olympics would be the “path of least resistance.”

She explains, “Track and field only allows for three slots for athletes in each event and the U.S. is always booked. At the time, only two other girls were throwing hammers for Nigeria.”

Anticipating her Olympic debut, after meeting requirements for quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 10 of the 23 athletes for Team Nigeria were told that they were ineligible to compete, including Echikunwoke, due to no fault of their own.

Echikunwoke was devastated.

“It was very confusing and heartbreaking,” she says. “I asked God why He had brought me here. I knew He had told me to do this, and I had had a perfect season leading up to the Olympics. I couldn’t understand why He would bring me this far and then not allow me to compete.”

Through the devastation, she began to realize that although she had always known she was doing this for God, she also found much enjoyment from athletics. She states that was the moment she realized how much of herself she was giving to her athletic career, mentally, emotionally, and physically.

“For a while, I couldn’t even talk about it without crying but eventually I had to decide to move past it,” she recalls.

A short time later, Echikunwoke realized that she had to keep going, though she wasn’t quite sure how.

The Lord kept her afloat and she began to have frank conversations with her coach about next steps.

“We decided that the best decision moving forward was to go with Team U.S.A. It was exciting but also scary because there was a lot more of a chance to not make teams,” she says.

To initiate the process, Echikunwoke sent an email to request a move from Team Nigeria to Team U.S.A., a process which would have been much longer and more difficult had she competed for Nigeria.

She states, “Since I didn’t actually compete for Nigeria, there was no issue. If I had competed, I would have had to wait three years to switch and sit out for those years while I waited.”

In 2023, Echikunwoke didn’t make the team, missing the invitation by one spot.

“It was really disappointing,” she states, “but I knew I just had to adjust, and I knew where I needed to improve.”

Heading into the 2024 season, Echikunwoke started with the best season opener of her career. But the momentum did not continue.

“The season went downhill and I started questioning God again,” she admits.

Being an Olympic year, Echikunwoke began to get nervous. Yet when it came time for the Olympic Team trials, she decided to release her anxiety and believe that God had a purpose in which she needed to trust.

At the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Team Trials held in Eugene, Oregon, in June, Echikunwoke not only performed well, she won the women's hammer throw!

Then, with her church cheering her on, she left for the Olympics being held in Paris, patiently anticipating whatever God had in store. Echikunwoke found herself in a position to possibly be the first female athlete to ever medal in the hammer throw for Team U.S.A.

And that’s just what she did. In the 2024 summer games, Echikunwoke won the silver medal and made history in the hammer throw with a 75.48m effort.

She says, “Trusting God is hard when things don’t happen on your timeline. But keeping faith, especially amidst big things, helps us to know we can’t do it on our own. We have to have God and we have to have faith that if He has called us to it, He will give us the grace to do it.”

Echikunwoke hopes that her testimony will encourage those who are discouraged to keep leaning on Christ.

Ashley B. Grant

Ashley B. Grant has a master's degree in Human Services Marriage and Family Counseling from Liberty University and is a credentialed Christian counselor through the American Association of Christian Counselors. Grant also holds certifications in crisis pregnancy counseling and advanced life coaching. Ashley is a fourth generation Assemblies of God preacher’s kid and has one daughter and three sons.