JACQUELINE MADOGO
Sport: Athletics
Event: Women’s 200 m, 100 m (provisional) & 4×100 m relay
Age: 24
Hometown: Ottawa
Residence: Guelph
Local Club: West Ottawa Soccer Club
First Olympics
Instagram: @jacqueline.madogo
VIEW JACQUELINE’S COMPETITION SCHEDULE HERE.
By Jackson Starr
At age 24, Jacqueline Madogo isn’t overly unique among the 174 Team Canada athletes set to make their debuts at the 2024 Olympic Games. But as someone who only took up their sport competitively four seasons ago, and who’s now set to stand on the start line in Paris? That’s the kind of rapid rise that’s virtually unheard of.
Now set to race in as many as three sprint events on the track at the 80,000-seat Stade de France, the former University of Guelph Gryphons varsity soccer player can officially say her offseason training regiment proved worthwhile.
“I was using it as conditioning, using it as, ‘track will help me get better faster on the pitch,'” recounts Madogo, a defender who’d been recruited to play for Guelph following her youth career at West Ottawa Soccer Club. “I wasn’t expecting to be as good as I was or gain success as fast as I did.”
Also a high school volleyball, touch football and track-and-field athlete at Franco-Ouest, Madogo became an Ontario and national silver medalist in the indoor women’s 60 m dash in her rookie university season just before COVID struck in 2020.
She was shocked at the results – her coaches and teammates, less so.
“They saw more talent than I did in myself at the beginning,” recalls Madogo, who had displayed potential earlier when she won the 2017 OFSAA provincial high school senior girls’ 100 m bronze medal in her Grade 11 year.
“Over the years, I figured I can definitely make the jump (from soccer),” she adds. “I think it was definitely a factor of who I’m surrounded with and how my environment shaped who I am today.”
The University of Guelph has long been home to a powerhouse running program, and Madogo eventually went on to capture three Canadian university gold medals for the Gryphons, plus a share of a 4×200 m relay national record.
Despite the swift success, Madogo says the switch to a new primary sport was daunting in the early part of her university career, especially going from a team sport to an individual one.
“There was a lot,” Madogo reflects. “In track, although you train on a team and you’re in a team environment, you line up by yourself. I’ve always had that team mentality – we win as a team, we lose as a team and just compete as a team. That was a big challenge for me at first.”
Despite some hurdles, having a soccer background provided certain benefits to training for track, which Madogo says played a big role in allowing her to excel quickly in her new pursuit.
“My endurance is really good because I was playing consistent 90-minute games,” signals the former fullback. “My conditioning really helped a lot with the longer workouts and aerobic stuff that we were doing, which was something that I really enjoyed, because in soccer, we do run a lot.”
One of Madogo’s former soccer coaches with the West Ottawa Warriors, Chris Bascelli, says that even in her younger years as an athlete, Madogo was always open to trying new aspects of the sport.
“When she came to us, she didn’t have a clear-cut position where we thought she would be best,” Bascelli recalls. “I think her willingness to be coached in a different position or two, I can see how in the track game that can translate as well, whether it’s a different running technique or a different event that her coaches want her to run in.”
Bascelli also highlights the strong mental game that Madogo possesses, which has proven valuable throughout her athletic career.
“The more mental trait that would translate was her not taking losses too directly or not getting too down on herself after a loss,” he indicates. “Recognizing that if she didn’t play well, figuring out what she can do better and trying to fix that, but not letting that affect her too much going into the next week of training or into the next match day.”
Madogo concurs.
“Track is a very big mental sport,” she echoes. “It’s 90 per cent mental. Your physical (condition) can be at its peak, but if your mental state is not where it needs to be, you definitely won’t achieve your goals. I figured out very quickly that I need to have a really good mental state to be able to perform.”
Madogo credits the people who have helped her along the way with helping to craft the mental performance skills that are so pivotal.
“My parents and siblings are always at meets,” she smiles. “They make it out, whether I’m across the world in Cape Town, they’ll come watch. That’s something that’s reassuring to me and I know whether the result is good or bad, that those people are always there and that’s what means the world to me.”
On top of the supporting cast that will be on-site in Paris, Madogo will also have a big backing behind her an ocean away in Kanata.
“It’s amazing,” says Bascelli, who coached Madogo for her under-16 and U17 soccer seasons. “We spoke about it at our last staff meeting, just how proud everyone at West Ottawa is to have someone get to that level. And we’re already starting to discuss where the watch party will be.”
Madogo could race up to 10 times in Paris if she were to take part in each of the heats and make the finals in all three of her events.
Madogo confirmed her spot on the Canadian Olympic team by placing third in the 200 m and second in the 100 m at the late-June Canadian trials in Montreal, which put her in good position to be selected for the 4×100 m relay as well.
Madogo did not run for the Canadian squad that qualified for the Olympics with a seventh-place finish at May’s World Relays, but she made her case to pass the baton in Paris with her 11.36-second clocking at the trials – .21 ahead of the fifth-place runner.
She enters the Games ranked 83rd in the world in the women’s 100 m and 47th in the 200 m. Those are certainly solid standings already for an Olympic rookie, although Madogo believes she can continue to climb higher in her newfound sport.
“I want to take in the experience,” she says of her Paris 2024 objectives. “I want to enjoy every bit of it. I definitely want to go out there competitive (and) put myself out there, put my best foot forward during every single race.
“Once you get to major Games anything can happen, and I want to have the self-belief to be able to compete with the best in the world.”
COMPETITION SCHEDULE:
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