Folashade Oluwafemiayo, para powerlifting champion, Number one in 86kg category World ranking. In 2012, Oluwafemiayo won a silver medal in the women’s 75kg category at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, breaking the world record in the process.

She also won a gold medal at the 2017 World Para Powerlifting Championships in Mexico. Getting all these accolades, she says “its all about the mind”

Shade’s para powerlifting career started after she finished school in Jos where she was born and brought up. She was introduced to the game by her Late uncle back then in Jos.

Shade joined para powerlifting in 1999, after she met the coach in charge of the game and other athletes she fell in love with the sports.

Less than a year after, in 2000 she made her first professional outing in Edo state and that opened the door for medals.

Winning medals is very important for an athlete and it doesn’t come easy, but for Shade, one of Nigeria’s finest Paralympian it is all about the mental strength, she said: “there were challenges in the competition but by God grace, I won the medal.”

Her first international game was in Dubai and she won gold. She progressed to the paralympic games in London and followed up with different world championships. Shade was awarded Sportswoman of the year in 2012 and 2013.

After enjoying a successive run in 2012, she missed the Rio 2016 games, but made up for it at the 2017 Mexico World Para Powerlifting Championships were she stepped up her category to -86kg and still picked up a gold medal.

Ahead of the Tokyo 2020 games, Shade believes in hard work, she currently trains three days in a week, believing and praying to win a gold medal come 2020. The feeling of winning a medal is elevating, she said, “I felt on top of the world when I won my first medal.”

Shade, Number one in the world ranking in 86kg category says her biggest source of motivation is “my children and husband.”