Barbara Udoezi Nwaba (born January 18, 1989) is an American

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete who represents the Santa Barbara Track Club. Nwaba is known for the multi events,

pentathlon A pentathlon is a contest featuring five events. The name is derived from Greek: combining the words ''pente'' (five) and -''athlon'' (competition) ( gr, πένταθλον). The first pentathlon was documented in Ancient Greece and was part of t ...

and

heptathlon A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek επτά (hepta, meaning "seven") and ἄθλος (áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, meaning "competition"). A competitor in a hept ...

. She is the 2015 USA Outdoor Track and Field champion in the heptathlon.

Early life and education

Nwaba was born January 18, 1989, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, to Nigerian parents Theodore & Blessing Nwaba. She is the oldest of 6 children. A 2007 graduate of University High School, Nwaba was the

CIF Los Angeles City Section The CIF Los Angeles City Section (CIF-LA) is the governing body of high school athletics for public schools in the city of Los Angeles and some surrounding communities. All of these schools were once associated with the Los Angeles Unified School ...

champion in the

300 meters hurdles The 300 metres hurdles (also spelled 300 meters hurdles in American English) is an athletics or track and field event. It is a cut-down version of the International event the 400 metres hurdles. It is a standard event under the NFHS in American hig ...

in 2007 and a 4-time runner up and representative in the

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

to the

CIF California State Meet The CIF California State Meet is the annual championship track and field meet for the California Interscholastic Federation. The meet was started in 1915 for boys and 1974 for girls. Every athlete in every high school in California has a direc ...

, but was eliminated in the preliminary rounds. Nwaba attended the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

on academic grounds, intending to study optometry, ultimately graduating in 2012 with a degree in Sociology. After redshirting a season, she set the school records in the

100 meters hurdles The 100 metres hurdles, or 100-meter hurdles, is a track and field event run mainly by women (the male counterpart is the 110 metres hurdles). For the race, ten hurdles of a height of are placed along a straight course of . The first hurdle is p ...

400 meters hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once ar ...

(since surpassed), and was part of the record setting

4x400 meters relay Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...

team (also since surpassed). In the process, she also ranked in the top ten in most of the heptathlon events. She finished her career as the champion of the Big West Conference heptathlon in 2012 en route to being named an All-American. Her brother,

David Nwaba David Ugochukwu Nwaba (born January 14, 1993) is an American professional basketball player for the Motor City Cruise of the NBA G League. He played college basketball for Santa Monica College and Cal Poly. High school career Nwaba attended ...

is a professional basketball player. He made his debut with the hometown

Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their ...

on February 28, 2017.

Professional career

Continuing with the multi-event oriented Santa Barbara Track Club, Nwaba continued to make steady improvements with coach Josh Priester, himself a former UCSB track and field coach. She was fifth at the 2012 Olympic Trials scoring 5986 points. Nwaba was an assistant coach at

Santa Barbara High School Santa Barbara Senior High School, "Home of the Dons," is situated on a sprawling campus in Santa Barbara, California in the Santa Barbara Unified School District. Among the oldest high schools in California and one of five high schools in the Dis ...

in the 2012-13 school year. At the 2014 Outdoor Championships she finished second to Sharon Day-Monroe in the heptathlon by 163 points, scoring 6307 points. Barbara Nwaba is the 2015 American Champion, edging Sharon Day-Monroe by 42 points, scoring exactly 6500 points. She finished second to Day-Monroe at the

2015 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships The 2015 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships was held at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston, Massachusetts. Organised by USA Track and Field (USATF), the three-day competition took place from February 27 to March 1 and serve ...

in the pentathlon. Nwaba's total makes her the sixth-highest scoring heptathlon performer in United States history. At the

2015 World Championships in Athletics The 2015 IAAF World Championships ( zh, 第十五届世界田径锦标赛), the fifteenth edition of the IAAF World Championships, were held from 22 to 30 August at the National Stadium in Beijing, China. Forty-three nations won medals, 144 of ...

, Nwaba misstepped the very first hurdle and then fell over the second. She continued in the competition despite the event costing her points. Ultimately, Nwaba completed the heptathlon and scored 5,315 points to place 27th. In the process Nwaba recorded new personal bests in the javelin and shot put. Barbara Nwaba is the 2016 American Pentathlon Champion and qualified to represent USA at 2016 World Indoor Championships in Athletics. Barbara Nwaba earned a bronze medal behind

Brianne Theisen-Eaton Brianne Theisen-Eaton (born 18 December 1988) is a Canadian retired track and field athlete who competed in the heptathlon and women's pentathlon. She won the bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Theisen-Eaton holds the Canadian record fo ...

and Alina Fyodorova in the Pentathlon at 2016 World Indoor Championships scoring 4661 points. Barbara Nwaba scored 6494 points in the

Heptathlon A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek επτά (hepta, meaning "seven") and ἄθλος (áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, meaning "competition"). A competitor in a hept ...

to join Team USA teammates Heather Miller-Koch and

Kendell Williams Kendell Williams (born June 14, 1995) is an American track and field athlete competing in the combined events. She represented her country at the 2016 World Indoor Championships finishing sixth. Williams qualified to represent the United States ...

at 2016 United States Olympic Trials and represented USA at

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

finishing 12th as the top American.

References

External links

*
UC Santa Barbara biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nwaba, Barbara Living people 1989 births Track and field athletes from Los Angeles American heptathletes American female hurdlers American female high jumpers American sportspeople of Nigerian descent African-American female track and field athletes University High School (Los Angeles) alumni UC Santa Barbara Gauchos women's track and field athletes World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic track and field athletes of the United States USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners 21st-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women