Track & Field | April 02, 2019

After growing up in Nigeria and attending high school in London, freshman hurdler Omotade "Tade" Ojora has made a quick impact on the USC Track & Field Team, already finishing first in two different races this spring. In 2018, Tade had a 110m hurdles personal best of 13.54 to win the senior boys title at the English School Championships, setting the championship record for the event. His quality character and dedication to the sport fuel his drive for success, propelling him forward to still greater heights. We had the pleasure of catching up with him the other day. 
 
Q - How have you enjoyed your time at USC so far?
 
O.O. - I've loved it so far! It's super different from England and Nigeria, from the accents to the weather, to the different personalities of the people, and amount of stuff there is to do here, and also just the size of L.A. But I've really enjoyed it so far, especially this semester. We're in season now, and things are slowly falling into place.
 
Q - What has been the biggest challenge you've faced in your time here at USC?
 
O.O. - It's probably been settling in and having to do everything yourself. I went to a boarding school in England before, so everything was provided for you. Food was always provided for you, there were certain times when you had to study, go to the dining halls, go to practice, go to class, whereas here it's a bit more fluid. You can kind of design your own schedule as such, so that's been pretty hard. Particularly with all the requirements and time restrictions I have as an athlete. Right now I'm actually registering for classes for next semester so that's been a bit of a struggle, but it's cool.
 
Q - You've enjoyed some immediate success in your races so far. What's led to that immediate success here at USC?
 
O.O. - It's just the coaching. In England my coaching was okay whenever I had coaching, but it wasn't as regimented or specialized as it is here. It was just me going out to practice by myself in the offseason, and during season I never really had a set hurdles coach. I also only attended on average 3 official competitions per season so I didn't have much race experience. Here the coaching is at a very high level and they work us hard and have high expectations for us, as we do for ourselves, so that's helped a lot for sure. Also just dedicating more of my time to track, and using the recovery and training facilities I have available has helped.
 
Q - What motivated you to stay so disciplined in high school when you didn't have that coaching?
 
O.O. - It was because of USC. I knew I wanted to come here. This has been my dream school for a long time. Even before my sister who's currently a junior came here, I was looking at USC. I've always wanted to come here. My mom went to school in L.A., and I love it, so L.A. has always been the aim, and I knew I had to be dedicated if I really wanted to come here. Sometimes it was hard because in England it gets super cold, and running in gloves, scarfs, and skins in the offseason isn't fun, but I just went and I did it and here I am.
 
Q - Did you notice a large cultural difference between England and America? Was it difficult to adjust?
 
O.O. - It wasn't too difficult to adjust because I knew a lot about Los Angeles before I came here and I'd always seen it in movies. I'd also been coming to New York quite often when I was younger, and I had visited L.A. before for vacation so I was kind of used to it.
 
Q - You said USC was your dream school for a while. Why was that? Why did you decide to come to USC?
 
O.O. - It was because of Los Angeles. The weather, the amount of stuff there is to do, the track and field history that USC has. It's second to none. They have had the highest number of Olympians, and ultimately that's the aim for me. My dream is to go to 2020 Tokyo, and I think USC could give me the best opportunity to achieve those dreams of mine. Not just athletically, but academically as well USC is amongst the very top. They have a very good balance between academics and athletics, so I thought this is the best place I could find myself.
 
Q - How do you prepare for your races?
 
O.O. - I usually just say a quick prayer before my race, and I have this routine that I do. When I go to the start line I hit both legs, do some clapping, crouching down, deep breaths, all that stuff. But usually I just try to keep super calm. I listen to some music before, usually afrobeat or grime (that's the British genre of rap). I do some of that, just praying, try to keep calm. The thing about hurdles is you can try really hard but that's not necessarily going to correlate with you running fast. You have to be calm and relaxed, so that's what I try to do before the races, calm down and just think about what I'm going to do. I like to envisage myself going over the hurdles, close my eyes. Everything from the sounds to the feel of the track, and the tartan on my fingers I have to wipe off on my shorts. I imagine everything. The race doesn't always go how I plan in my head, but those little things help, and hopefully I can achieve greater success. What I've achieved now, it's a good start, but it's not at all where I want to be. I have really high expectations for myself and still have a long way to go.
 
Q - How old were you when you first became interested in racing?
 
O.O. - I grew up in Nigeria, and would race all my friends and my sisters around 5pm everyday which is when we would go out to burn some energy. That was just recreational, that was just fun. I moved to England to go to school when I was eight, and when I went to school there was this boy who was the fastest boy in school. He was just notorious for being super fast. And I knew I was kind of fast cause in Nigeria I'd won a couple sports days here and there, so I was like 'Yeah, I'm pretty fast.' And I told this dude 'I'm quicker than you' and everyone was like 'Nah, no way, no chance.' So one day we went to the sports hall and half my grade came to watch this race, and I only just beat him. The track and field coach was there, and he was like 'Come out to practice next week. I want to see you run. You're quite quick.' So I went out, I raced the same guy, and I smashed him. So I started out with just flat races, and then he brought the hurdles out one day, and he was like 'Why don't you try the hurdles.' I tried it, and my first year doing hurdles I won the National Championship. I think I won the National Championship for hurdles three times, maybe four times, and then I came in second a couple of times, but we don't speak about that [laughs]. So, yeah I probably started hurdles when I was around ten, but track, probably eight, around then.
 
Q - What do you enjoy most about racing?
 
O.O. - I just enjoy the thrill. Like you're just on the start line, and everyone's starting in the same place, getting to the finish line as fast as they can. No one is at an unfair advantage, it's just who can do it better. There are a lot more variables than people actually understand. When you look at a race, let's say a hundred meters for example, people think mark, set, go, you just run as fast as you can. The amount of stuff you have to think of and repeat and practice and practice over and over and over again for a ten second race is unbelievable. So I just love the thrill of trying to perfect it, although there's no perfect, but just getting close and inching closer and closer. I love that feeling.
 
Q - You're bio talks about how you played soccer and rugby in high school as well. Do you miss playing those sports?
 
O.O. - Yeah I miss them quite a lot. There's a soccer class that plays just before we practice, so I always try and do some tricks. My coach doesn't like it too much, but I miss that for sure. And also rugby…I miss rugby a lot. I actually played up until I came to USC, and I had a little bit of an injury so I decided I should probably stop, but I love the speed of the game, and the amount of variables. It's like English American Football, and I like football anyways so rugby was my thing. But I'm happy I stuck with track, cause my dream is to go to the Olympics and take it as far as I can.
 
Q - What was it like having your sister at USC already?
 
O.O. - It was awesome, it really helped me settle in. When I first came here, everyone was in the same boat. I got to meet lots of people, and for me it wasn't as big a transition cause I already knew a couple people, cause when I had visited L.A. I met a couple of my sister's friends, so that helped a lot. I also met a lot of dope people who are now close friends in my first couple of days at USC so that was cool [they know who they are].  And just finding my way around, anything I didn't know, I could just call her. She was a lot of help. It was cool.
 
Q - Your bio talks about how you are the President of the African Society in high school. Can you talk a little bit about the role your culture has played in shaping your identity?
 
O.O. - I'm Yoruba, that's my tribe in Nigeria, and I think one of the main things that Yoruba people hold dear is respect for everyone regardless of race, "class" if you want to categorize it like that, age, anything. So that's really big for me, just respect in everything you do. Like at the end of races saying thank you to the guys you've raced against, good job, or if they didn't do that well better luck next time, just working as a group and getting better, and respecting everyone. I think that's the main thing. And the second one is just perseverance. Like having high expectations and just fighting every single day to get to those expectations, and to reach your goal ultimately. I think those are the main things that growing up in Nigeria and being part of Yoruba have taught me. And I'm also half Igbo (Igbo is one of the other tribes in Nigeria) and their main thing is work ethic, just work, work, work. I think that's shaped me a lot, and I hold those values very dear.
 
Q - Have you declared a major yet?
 
O.O. - No, not yet. I'm considering Geo Design. That's probably the front-runner. My mom studied architecture, and I love architecture. Ever since I was young my mom has always said I should study architecture because I'm always looking at houses and trying to design this and trying to design that. I love the architecture aspect of that. My family's in real estate in Nigeria so hopefully I can get into that one day. Land planning just sounds like it's probably the perfect one for me to go into. I'm still just deciding, but that's probably the one I'm going to go into.
 
Q - What's something interesting about you that maybe you didn't include in your bio?
 
O.O. - When I was young I had two lions, Samson and Sasha. I was around maybe six, and I used to play with them and chill with them. They were quite domesticated. Most people find that quite cool. That's something about me.
 
I also have a lot more in the tank for track and you're going to see some fast times and big stuff from me as I get more comfortable with the 42-inch hurdles, so just stay tuned.