Texas Chiropractic College Student Excels in Classroom and on the Olympic Stage

September 28, 2016 - PASADENA, Texas

M. Seun Adigun is a Trimester 7 student at Texas Chiropractic College working towards her Doctor of Chiropractic degree.  She encounters all the struggles graduate students do in daily life including learning, studying and trying to master the difficult material.  However, in addition to these responsibilities, Adigun is also training to hopefully attend the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Adigun began bobsledding shortly after she returned from the 2012 Summer Olympics in London where she represented the country of Nigeria in the 100m hurdles and the 4x100m relay.  She decided to retire from track after a “less than ideal” performance at the games, but never officially announced that she was finished.  Adigun says “Olympic fever” is what drew her to bobsledding.  She “wanted to redeem [herself] on the Olympic stage and stay relevant in professional sports.”  Adigun says the reasoning behind this is that she hopes to one day open her own chiropractic practice for elite athletes and feels that competing in another Olympics will help “create leverage for [herself] as a woman.”

Adigun explained her choice to transition from track to bobsledding simply.  Other women she knew had made the switch and encouraged her to do the same.  Adigun also described how “track athletes are the optimal athletes for the sport [of bobsledding].”  “You have to push a stationary sled from 0 mph to as fast as you can make it go in five seconds,” she explained.  The majority of track athletes already have the training to successfully complete this task which is what makes the switch more favorable for them.

Unlike most traditional students, Adigun trains for the Olympics and attends classes at Texas Chiropractic College concurrently.  She says she figured out how to “make it work with discipline, time management and organization.”  Adigun will begin her every day training in what she calls “bobsled land” at the end of October.   She says she is thankful for the faculty and staff of Texas Chiropractic College for allowing her to work towards achieving her Olympic goals as well as her educational ones.

Adigun says she strives for excellence in everything she does, so it is no surprise that she was just recently awarded the FICS – ATLANTA 1996 Olympian Scholarship, a two- year full academic scholarship. 

Adigun says the biggest concern doctorate students have is the financial burden placed on them to pay for the program.  She says this scholarship will “allow for more room mentally and emotionally to grown in other areas as well as the opportunity to dedicate more time to personal, community and institutional development.” Adigun hopes this will help her “give back to the profession 

[of chiropractic] and [she] intend[s] to do that wholeheartedly.”

Adigun says her overall goal is to “become an ambassador of the profession, advocate on an international platform, restore global trust and awareness and ultimately reinforce the beauty of chiropractic and the quality of education.”

When asked how confident she was in making the 2018 Olympic team, Adigun smiled.  “By God’s grace… 2018,” she replied.