What started as a simple attempt to try something new has transformed into an international sporting career for Nigeria wheelchair basketball captain Ijigbamigbe Gbemisola Olubisi, who has revealed how an unexpected introduction to sport in 2018 changed the direction of her life.
Ijigbamigbe said she had no elaborate sporting ambition when a teammate first introduced her to sport. Instead, she approached the opportunity with curiosity and decided to see where it would take her.
“I was introduced to sports in 2018 by a teammate. I was like, ‘Let me just try it out,’ and it has been one loss and victory after the other,” she told Sports247.
That seemingly ordinary decision would eventually lead her through two different sports, a National Sports Festival medal and ultimately to the responsibility of captaining Nigeria in wheelchair basketball.
But basketball was not where she first made her mark.
With the National Sports Festival approaching in 2018, Ijigbamigbe was encouraged to consider swimming, with her height viewed as a potential advantage.
At the time, she was still relatively new to wheelchair basketball and faced the possibility of not immediately securing a place in the team for the festival.
Swimming suddenly presented another route.
Rather than reject a sport she had not originally planned to pursue, the Sociology graduate embraced the challenge and began preparing for the trials.
What happened next surprised even her.
“In one month, I started training, and I was able to beat the other athlete at the trials,” she recalled.
Within a remarkably short period, Ijigbamigbe had gone from learning the sport to earning the opportunity to compete at the National Sports Festival.
She did not stop there.
Ijigbamigbe went on to claim a bronze medal in swimming, providing an early indication of the competitive drive that would later become central to her wheelchair basketball career.
Despite her success in the pool, however, swimming never displaced the sport that had captured her heart.
Asked to choose between the two, there was no hesitation.
“Basketball,” she replied.
The reason goes beyond winning.
For Ijigbamigbe, wheelchair basketball provides an intensity and sense of collective responsibility that she finds difficult to replicate elsewhere.
She explained that being part of a team means an athlete does not have to carry every difficult moment alone.
“When I am weak, another person can pick up for me, and when that person is weak, it will also tell on the next person,” she said.
It is that dependence on teammates, combined with the physical nature of wheelchair basketball, that continues to fuel her passion.
“I like that it brings people together, and generally, I like any sport that is ball-inclined,” Ijigbamigbe said.
And then there is the feeling she gets when competition becomes intense.
“I love the contact, dribbling, defending and everything else, which gives me an adrenaline rush. I really love the adrenaline rush.”
The journey has not been a straight line.
There have been victories and defeats, different sporting disciplines and the challenge of developing from someone simply willing to “try it out” into an athlete capable of carrying national responsibility.
But that experiment in 2018 ultimately became much more than an experiment.
Today, Ijigbamigbe is captain of Nigeria’s wheelchair basketball team, with international competition now part of a journey that began without any certainty about where sport would take her.
For young athletes wondering whether to take their first opportunity, her story provides an intriguing example of how quickly circumstances can change.
In 2018, Ijigbamigbe only wanted to “try it out.” She could hardly have known that those four words would eventually help take her from a sporting beginner to wearing Nigeria’s colours — and leading the national team.
