The guest of honor danced into camera view to a Nigerian afrobeat track, green beads in her braided hair and a bouquet of white balloons overhead. A green and white Nigerian flag hung on the wall behind her, framing an array of trophies, plaques, medals and her racing bib from her history-making skeleton run at the 2018 Winter Olympics. A towering green-and-white cake bore a warm message in frosting:
CONGRATULATIONS SIMIDELE
TEAM NIGERIA
And yet, of the 75 or so family members, friends and other loved ones who gathered over Zoom on that Sunday in late January, none actually knew the reason behind why they were congratulating Simidele Adeagbo. For more than an hour they watched a slideshow of pictures from her youth. They took turns sharing words of encouragement. They laughed and cried. But was it a sendoff? A comedown? What?
