Sam Fariss wrote her fifteenth column under Run by Women on Adelaide Aquilla, who I recall meeting at a Dennys in Springfield, Oregon after she made the Olympic team last summer. Adelaide Aquilla had a fantastic 2021, with her NCAA title and then, she made the U.S. Olympic team, taking third place. In Tokyo, Adelaide competed in the second qualifying group, placing 20th overall.
In 2022, Adelaide is winning nearly everything in sight, taking four of five wins in the collegiate indoor season. What is next for Adelaide? Read on!
Adelaide Aquilla, 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials, photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Run by Women #15: Adelaide Aquilla, a walk-on becomes an Olympian
By Sam Fariss
Adelaide Aquilla hopped on our zoom call following her accounting class, not something you say about most Olympians who you interview. She, however, qualified for her first Olympic Games just a few months after turning 22 years old and still working toward her undergraduate degree at Ohio State University.
Aquilla, who is from Ohio, returned to OSU for her senior season after the Tokyo Games for a few reasons, none of which are very surprising:
- She has fallen in love with the school
- She wants to finish her undergraduate degree
- Ohio State is really good at sports
“It’s weird cause a lot of random people around campus will come up to me and be like ‘Oh, congratulations on your past season.’ It’s definitely a weird switch from last year and pre-Olympics,” Aquilla said.
Adelaide Aquilla, 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials, photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Following the Olympics, Aquilla took time off from track and field to recenter herself which was a bit of a learning curve for the young athlete.
“It was weird being at the pentacle of every athlete’s dreams and then coming back and being like oh yeah I’m a regular person,” Aquilla said.
Aquilla started at the school as a walk-on athlete and is now collecting one award after another. In just the past calendar year she has earned herself the titles of Ohio State’s 2021 female athlete of the year, the winner of two NCAA championships, the winner of two Big Ten Conference championships, and the owner of the school indoor and outdoor shot put records. Not to mention the addition of the Big Ten’s Female Athlete of the Week which she earned the morning of our conversation.
She didn’t just stumble upon this heightened success. Not only did she put in all of the work necessary and then some, but she also had some help; such as her welding together a whole squat rack for her to use at home.
“It took a lot of time outside of competition to invest in myself and make sure I was doing the proper technique and lifting the weights, that I’ve known some professionals do, to get myself to that level of competition,” Aquilla said.
I asked her when she would be satisfied with her career, or when she thought she would finally be finished – a topic that she had recently been discussing with her boyfriend, Reggie Browley, a fellow thrower at OSU. She had told him that morning she thought she would feel as though she proved herself when she holds the world record (22.63 meters).
Adelaide Aquilla, 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials, photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
My next question was simple, “Do you think you can do it?”
“I definitely do,” Aquilla said without hesitation.
Adelaide Aquilla just won the Big Ten Indoor Shot Put championships, photo/design courtesy of Ohio State University
