STATS: Adeolu Lou Adesida '15

SPORT Track and Field

EVENT High Jump

PERSONAL BEST High Jump: 2.18m (7' 1¾ - school record); Triple Jump: 13.00m (42’ 8”)

HOMETOWN Philadelphia

CLASS Junior

MAJOR Accounting

GPA 3.52

CLUBS AND ORGANIZATIONS
National Association of Black

Accountants (NABA) and Student-
Athlete Mentors (SAMs)

HOW I GOT STARTED I was actually playing basketball in high school, and playing in the summer on the AAU circuit. I wanted to stay in shape because I was only practicing once or twice a week. I figured the best way to do it was with track. I did running events in high school, but I eventually started high jumping.

DAILY ROUTINE DURING THE SEASON I wake up, do work until I have class and then go to class. After that I go straight to practice, eat dinner right after, shower, do some more work, hopefully be done by 1 or 1:30 [in the morning], watch some T.V. and then sleep.

BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT I was academic all-American [last spring]. To become an academic all-American, you have to be top 48 on the East Coast in your event and have a cumulative GPA of 3.25. That combines what you’ve done on the field or on the track and what you’ve done in school. Everyone on that list is obviously one of the top performers on their team and in the classroom.

FAVORITE ATHLETE IN ANOTHER SPORT Allen Iverson

FAVORITE PRE-MEET MEAL Pasta

GOALS THIS SEASON My goal would be to [set a personal record] again, and in doing so I would hope to qualify for indoor nationals, and definitely for the outdoor season I’d want to go to outdoor nationals, the final round. I also want to get into higher divisions in things like Penn Relays, being able to jump in the championship sections, the elite sections. [The championship and elite sections] jump on Saturday at Penn Relays is when you have guys like Usain Bolt running, and so it’s a hyped environment, and that’s the kind of environment I want to be at.

BEFORE MY EVENTS, I LISTEN TO Chill, relaxed Hip-Hop. I like to listen to Big L, Dr. Dre, J. Cole, A$AP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, and Michael Jackson sometimes too.

I AM MOTIVATED BY The people around me motivate me because I’m really competitive. I’m also pretty self-motivated, but if I see people doing well that kind of just motivates me to do better, especially in school. If you’re getting grades back on a test and say you didn’t do as well, but everyone else did, you want to study more so that you fall on the higher end of the class average.

MENTORS [My mentors] obviously include my parents, and my three older siblings. My siblings all went to college; they’ve all graduated, so I saw what they did preparing for everything. And now that I have a visual example of what they do, I see things I should and shouldn’t do. Being the youngest definitely helps.

LEADERSHIP STYLE My style is leading by example. As far as athletics go, people will always look up to you if you’re excelling in what you’re doing. If they see that you can combine doing well in school and doing well in your sport, people recognize that and say ‘Wow, he or she is well-rounded.’ So that inspires people to investigate and see how that athlete prepares outside of their sport, outside of school and see what makes them excel.