Taiwo Aladefa Darden (born 19 December 1974) is a retired

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

n 100 m hurdler. She attended

Alabama A&M Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University (Alabama A&M) is a public historically black land-grant university in Normal, Huntsville, Alabama. Founded in 1875, it took its present name in 1969. AAMU is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshal ...

university from 1989 until 1993. She is the school record holder in 100M hurdles (13.19sec) and was a 16 time NCAA All American athlete. Aladefa was a member of the first historically black college to ever win any NCAA track and field competition (1992). She competed in the women's 100 metres hurdles at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

. She is still ranked amongst the top 10 fastest African 100 M Hurdlers of all time. She won gold at the 1995 All African games and silver medals at the

1991 All-Africa Games The 5th All-Africa Games were held from September 20 to October 1, 1991, in Cairo, Egypt. Forty-three countries participated in eighteen sports. For the first time the Games were held on a four-year cycle as planned. Egypt had hoped to use the G ...

and the 1993 African Championships and won the

1995 All-Africa Games The 6th All-Africa Games were played from 13 to 23 September 1995 in Harare, Zimbabwe. 46 countries participated in eighteen sports. South Africa, having previously been banned from competition by the other African nations, was invited to the ...

in a new championship record of 12.98 seconds.All-Africa Games
- GBR Athletics Taiwo Aladefa was honored with Africa Legend in Athletics award in 2011 and also inducted into Alabama A&M University Sports Hall of Fame in August 2012. Her brother Kehinde Aladefa competed in

400 metres 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 a ...

at the

Athletics - men's 400 m hurdles
- Full Olympians and won a silver and bronze medal at the All-Africa Games in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

and

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

. He graduated from the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

References

External links

* 1974 births Living people Nigerian female hurdlers Yoruba sportswomen African Games gold medalists for Nigeria African Games medalists in athletics (track and field) African Games silver medalists for Nigeria Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Nigeria Athletes (track and field) at the 1991 All-Africa Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1995 All-Africa Games Universiade bronze medalists for Nigeria Medalists at the 1995 Summer Universiade Nigerian twins Twin sportspeople Fraternal twins 20th-century Nigerian women {{Nigeria-athletics-bio-stub