Ndudi aiming to take giant leap in green at the Games

New Irish record gives teenager belief she can hit the Olympic long jump standard in time for Paris

Elizabeth Ndudi knows how to make a first impression. In her first jump at her first outdoor event in her first American collegiate season, she jumped further than she had ever jumped before. Last month, Ndudi broke the 14-yearold Irish long jump record with a leap of 6.68m at the Gary Wieneke Memorial in Illinois.

She beat Kelly Proper’s previous Irish record by 6cm, bettered her own personal best by 12cm, and leapt her way into the conversation for Olympic qualification. She turned 19 in March. How about that for a seasonal take-off?

This is no ordinary year, not even for a teenager. Ndudi moved to the University of Illinois on scholarship last autumn from her home in Nantes, France, soon after she became the first Irish athlete to win gold in a field event at the European U-20 Championships. Under new coach Petros Kyprianou, she had her eye on taking down the Irish senior record, although she didn’t foresee it happening as soon as her opening jump of the new outdoor season.

“I started off with a bang. I thought, ‘Wow, this is crazy’ because I knew if that was only the first jump of the first meet, I just know there’s more to come,” Ndudi tells the Irish Independent from Illinois.

“I’m not at my peak, so that’s really exciting. I knew that being able to jump the national record at such a young age is another historical moment. It was a step I had to accomplish before the Olympics.”

Ndudi is edging closer to becoming the first woman to represent Ireland in the long jump at an Olympics. Logic suggests this could be in LA ’28, but her recent record moved the needle on that. She’s 18cm from history.

Her 6.68m jump last month was a world U-20 lead for the year until her fellow freshman at Illinois, Sophia Beckmon, recorded 6.86m earlier this month, which is bang on the Olympic standard. World rankings quota is one route to Olympic qualification, but Ndudi reckons she can go route one and hit the standard before the June 30 cut-off.

She recently recorded a few foul jumps (scratches, as she calls them below) that were just over and under the magic mark of 6.86m.

Standard

“Myself and my coach believe I can jump the actual standard. Last weekend, we had a home meet and I had really big scratches. My best jump was only 6.59m, but I wasn’t on the board. I don’t want to exaggerate it too much, but I had a scratch that was almost seven metres, two other scratches around 6.80m, so I think once I figure out my problem of scratching, I think those jumps can be Olympic-standard jumps.”

Ndudi was born in Dublin in March 2005 to her half-Irish/half-Dutch mother, Avril, and her Nigerian father, Michael. The first language she spoke was Dutch, as she lived in the Netherlands from age one to three before they returned to live in Sandyford, where she later began athletics and joined Dundrum South Dublin AC.

She was 11 when they moved to Nantes. She has a younger half-sister who also lives in Nantes and an older half-brother who lives in Nigeria. The strands of her Irish, Dutch and Nigerian heritage are ones she holds onto.

“All three cultures are definitely important to me. I think it’s something really unique about me. I’m very in touch with different foods. One of my favourite dishes is Nigerian food. I like to learn things about that culture, like, one of my favourite books is about the Igbo tribes. I’m so proud of all three cultures and that’s something I like to bring up with people that I’m from so many different diverse places.”

Luckily for Irish athletics, Ndudi is the one who didn’t get away after her move to France eight years ago. After she got the qualifying standard for the European U-18 Championships in 2022 (in both the long jump and 100m), her coach Julien Guilard at Racing Club Nantes was in contact with the French athletics federation and they wanted her to compete for France. She decided on Ireland.

“When I was younger, it was always Ireland. And when I moved to France, I started getting good and there was a small doubt because I was like, ‘Where did I improve the most?’ It was in France. So I was thinking, should I maybe compete for the French team? But then I thought, as a kid, I always said, ‘If I ever go to the Olympics, I’ll be competing for Ireland’. You don’t see many Irish track and field athletes on the big stage. You’ve great athletes like Rhasidat (Adeleke), but there are never as many as French or American athletes. I really wanted to be one of those athletes you see on that big stage. And that’s when I knew I wanted to compete for Ireland. It’s my home country, where I started track and field.”

If Ireland is where she started athletics and France is where her talent blossomed, then America is where her skill is being shaped and reloaded.

Since she moved to the University of Illinois (where she’s studying business), there are four areas she feels she’s improving under Kyprianou.

First, her speed on the runway. Second, her take-off: just before her right foot hits the board, she’s trying to inswing her left knee to get that “pop” into the air. Third, staying airborne longer by keeping her hands in the air and bringing them down at the same time as her legs. And fourth, She wants to “speed through the board”. Instead of preparing to hit the board and lowering her centre of gravity on her penultimate step, she’s trying to carry the speed through before jumping which “feels more freeing”.

The decision-makers in World Athletics want a make-over for the long jump and get rid of foul jumps with proposals of a ‘take-off zone’ where a jump would be measured from takeoff to the landing position. Whatever happens down the line, Ndudi likes the performative aspect of her discipline and getting the crowd involved.

“I like the attention. I like when there are big crowds, and everyone is watching the long jump. I want to perform well for myself, but when everyone’s watching, you’re like, ‘Let me give them a show’. It’s not just a sport, but it’s also like a performance, it’s entertainment. I love asking for a clap, it gives you a little more confidence to let go.”

What’s also given her confidence in what’s possible is Adeleke. She’s never actually spoken face-to-face with Adeleke – who’s three years older than her – although they have connected through social media.

“In a way, not on purpose, I followed in her (Adeleke’s) footsteps. I came to the US. I’m trying to get myself into big competitions at a young age. Someone who’s Irish, she’s also Nigerian. I just said, ‘I want to be her’. That’s who I wanted to be. I wanted to follow in her footsteps.”

Summer

Ndudi has the kind of summer plans that are not on the radar of most teenagers. Competing in the European Championships in Rome in June is “pretty much out of the question” because it clashes with the NCAAs in Oregon. If she doesn’t make the Olympics, she’ll go to the World U-20s in August.

But she wants to be in Paris, competing in an Olympics in the country where her home is while competing for the country of her birth. And she doesn’t use her young age as a get-out clause. In fact, she wants this because of her young age.

“I really am giving everything for the Olympics. I’ve been repeating to myself, ‘I will qualify, I will participate in the 2024 Olympics’. That’s my new affirmation. I’ve been saying that every day because I think it’s the fact that I know that I’m capable of jumping the standard and qualifying.

“When I was little, I always said, ‘I will be in the Olympics’. I said that to so many people and I really want to prove to my younger self that I can do it at a young age. That’s all I’m thinking about.”

This talented teenager is on the runway – who knows where she will land?

“I wanted to compete for Ireland. It’s my home country”

Elizabeth Ndudi