Running and jumping came to me naturally. It was while I took to athletics which was known as track and field then. I took part in basketball, badmin… - Modupe Oshikoya

They (Government of Nigeria) must catch the athletes when they are young. We started very young. They must encourage the athletes with good incentives to be able to compete.

Education was very important to me as an athlete back then. I took it seriously right from when I was in Nigeria and even when I got to the United States and ran for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the coaches were trying to make athletics the major priority. I made them know that I came to the US for my education while athletics is secondary. I made sure I got my degrees first. I know that with the education I have something to fall back on in the case of injury or retirement from the sport.

We were already at the 1976 Montreal, Olympics in Canada and waiting for the opening ceremony before we pulled out of the competition a day before it. Everybody was disappointed because of the hard work we had put in preparing for the Olympics for four years but it wasn’t the end of the world.