When Aminat Adeniyi started as a wrestler, she didn’t think it would be her career as she only intended to learn it for the fun of it.
She said: “I started wrestling while I was in secondary school because I enjoyed fighting while I was much younger but I was more interested in handball.”
Miss Adeniyi, an African and commonwealth champion, said she just stubbornly loved to fight while she was much younger, so she summoned the courage to go to a coach back then to tell him that she wanted to learn how to fight.
She added that she thought learning wrestling would empower her to beat those who oppressed her until she was told that as a professional, she couldn’t just engage anyone in a fight.
She stated: “I used to go for handball training at the stadium. But on that day, I went to the wrestling coach that I wanted to join his team. The coach told me to sit and watch the wrestlers. After watching for a while, he told me to fight with one of the girls in his team. I did well and he was pleased with me and that was how I took special interest in it.’’
She said the success of her career was connected to the coach and others, especially in getting the consent of her parents.
Getting parental approval was a major issue for many, especially those choosing wrestling as a career.
She said: “My coach took it more personal than me. I was just doing it for fun but he saw it as a profession. He motivated and guided me. When I told my mum that I wanted to be a wrestler, my mum kicked against it. She was always telling me that they would break my bones and that l shouldn’t bother about venturing into it. But my coach really helped to persuade my mum. After much persuasion, my mum agreed to it but told me to be careful. Today, I am grateful that my mum is proud of me.
“I have really excelled in my career and I cannot but thank God for what I have achieved from wrestling,” she added.
Our love lives
She said she was used to guys pulling out ones they learnt she was a wrestler, adding that such hadn’t stopped her from seeking the best qualities in a man.
She said there were occasions when she could have got along with some guys but once they heard that she was a wrestler, they would withdraw from her.
The commonwealth champion narrated that there was an occasion she had met a guy at a party and they started to communicate deeply until she disclosed that she was a wrestler and the guy went blank.
She said: “I am used to some men saying that they were scared of dating a female wrestler because they would get beaten up by them. In some cases where we got along well, once they find out that I am a wrestler, they just back off.
“There was the case of a guy I met at someone’s wedding. Of course, I wasn’t dressed like an athlete and we got along well. We continued communication from then and in one of our conversations, he asked what I did for a living.
“He had an idea that I was into sports but he didn’t know the exact sports. I told him I was a wrestler. I could see the shock all over him. He didn’t say anything at first, so I sustained the conversation telling him that ‘see you, you don’t know I can beat you.’ It was as if I loosened whatever was tying his mouth.
“He said, ‘exactly, you will be beating me. I cannot say anything in the house oh.’ He went on and on. But when he got a hold of himself, he tried to manage the situation as if he wasn’t scared but I already got the message.’’
She noted that it was the last she heard of the guy and subsequently whenever he chatted her up, he would simply drop a message saying, “Hello, madam wrestler.”
She added that she wasn’t offended by the episode as she was aware of the qualities she wanted in her man.
“Of course, I wasn’t offended because I knew he wasn’t the kind of man I wanted. I want a man who loves me for me and one who is confident. A man that understands that being a wrestler is a profession and would not see me as a husband beater. One who even If he cannot beat me in the real sense wouldn’t be scared of me because I am a wrestler.
“I want a man who understands that wrestling is my profession and when I am in the house, I am his baby girl,” she added.