Chioma Ajunwa, a police woman, made the jump of 7.12 meters that won the long jump gold at the Atlanta 96 Olympic Games. It meant more to her than any other thing in the world.

Sixteen years before that, she was a “village girl” somewhere in Imo State who later played some handball and football for the Larry’s Angels Football Club of Port Harcourt that later became Rivers Angels.

She was drafted into the Nigerian Police and had represented Nigeria several times in the sprints as well as the long jump.

However, in the few seconds after she was confirmed gold medal winner at the Olympics, her mind would have probably flashed back to 1992 when she failed a drugs test.

“I never one day went to the chemist to buy something to take to enhance my performance,” she told Nigerian Telegraph in an exclusive interview. ”What most chemists, pharmacists and even doctors give to athletes if you are sick, or in pain, have banned substances in it and they don’t even know. Maybe if you have a dislocation or something like that , when you get to a doctor, he will give you something that you don’t know.”

Those were the most trying moments of her life as her morale fell to its all time low.

“It was a sad part of my life for me,” she said. “The thing about drugs testing is that as soon as you test positive, nobody listens to you again and nobody gives you a chance in life. At that time, I was so young and ignorant and I had no idea of what drugs were. I never knew that some of these over-the-counter tablets we buy could contain banned substances. That was my case and that is how they caged me and branded me a drug cheat.”

She added that it was people like Segun Odegbami, the former Nigeria National football team attacker, who encouraged her and saw her through her psychological recovery before she was able to represent Nigeria again and even win the Olympics gold medal

“The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) didn’t want to have anything to do with me anymore; and if it was left for them I wouldn’t have taken part in the trials that qualified me for the Olympic Games in 1996,” she said. “Chief Odegbami stood by me, and even after I had taken other tests to confirm I was clean, the AFN refused to let me participate and I remember him standing right there on the tracks making series of phone calls before they allowed me compete.”

Ajunwa also said she cannot complete her story without talking about the Nigeria Police Force who stood by her even when all others had given up.

“Without the Nigeria Police Force, I do not think anybody would have remembered Chioma Ajunwa today,” she said. “How could I have made it? How could I have travelled to do all those tests? They stood by me through thick and thin and I thank God I made it out successfully to become what I am today.”

Today, she has a foundation she simply calls the Chioma Ajunwa Foundation and its aim is to educate athletes about the dangers of using drugs to enhance their performance and also to let them know of banned substances in drugs so they don’t take them ignorantly.

“The truth is that most of them do not even know and could be buying such drugs off the counter without knowing that they contain banned substances just like it happened to me,” she said. “That is why, by the grace of God, I started this project and I go round to sporting meets to talk to athletes so that they don’t go through what I faced. Some of them too may knowingly take drugs and I want to tell them it is wrong. That is what my foundation has been doing since its inception and we hope to continue that.”

In Port Harcourt, before the commencement of the 10th Biennial Police Games, the Chioma Ajunwa Foundation held a road walk on the streets of the city to spread their message not just to athletes competing at the games but to residents of the city.

More here >>> http://telegraphng.com/2013/07/ajunwas-leap-from-drug-cheat-to-motivator/