All About Samson… the athlete

Early Years

Born in the summer month of June 1981, Samson Oni is as bright of a character as the season he was born in.  His grandfather named him after the Biblical hero in the story “Samson & Delilah”.

Oni unavoidably witnessed all levels of crime and violence

As a child to separated parents, Oni spent his early childhood in Illinois, USA, where his father resided; and Lagos, Nigeria, which was home for his mother. At the age of 5 and with a long history of frequent traveling behind him, he finally settled with his mother and younger brother in London, England; a place he would eventually see as his new home. Coming from a large extended family, growing up in a tight knit home was the norm but finances were often tight. His mother worked 2-3 jobs at a time just to keep the family at an adequate standard of living.

At 9 years of age, Oni recognised his first athletic talent by winning sprint races against his older peers; however, he wouldn’t pay much attention to his natural abilities until later on in his life. Rather, he would go on to join his Primary School’s football team where he played goalie and in defense before realising the full extent of his talent.

Like many of London’s inner city children, Oni spent weekday mornings and afternoons at a state school but the evenings were spent in an economically deprived housing development. In such a habitat, Oni unavoidably witnessed all levels of crime and violence. Many of his neighbourhood friends were sucked into the sort of life that the environment offered but Oni was adamant to think outside the box and not surrender to his surroundings.

It wasn’t until age 11 that the sport of basketball was introduced to Oni through his new secondary school. Pairing up with new friends that shared the same interest helped to quickly accelerate Oni’s obsession with playing the sport and improving his skills. He took part in unstructured play nearly every day and attended various team training sessions up to 4 times a week. This professional-like schedule to playing sport was what ultimately kept Oni off the streets and away from negative influences that surrounded the place he would go home to everyday.

By 1994 and as a 13/14 year old, Oni had fully acknowledged and embraced his athletic talents. He would regularly flaunt on the basketball court and proudly put on a display of his slam dunking skills in front of teammates and peers alike. Subsequently, this would fuel the ambition of this young hopeful and spur his involvement in playground parades where all would admire his superior leaping ability. In fact, it was no surprise when Oni was given the nickname “Air Oni” after NBA basketball player Michael “Air” Jordan.

Oni always showed an attraction to sport in general, not including the sports that required him to play out in the freezing cold! More importantly, he was always eager to learn new skills, which explained his disappointment when his P.E. teacher didn’t select him to practice high jumping on the school’s brand new high jump bed. “I was left out because I was quite short in height and high jumping was seen as a sport for tall people,” Oni explains. “But I wasn’t going to let that stop me from trying it out.” With permission to watch his taller peers practice their high jumping, Oni stood in observation till the point where none of the practicing group could clear the last height of the bar. Having observed everyone fail numerous attempts, Oni stepped up to try it out. With just a few running steps and a mighty unorthodox leap, he powered his way to the top of the bar and produced a clearance that left the whole group amazed. Not realizing it at the time, this was one action that would change Oni’s life.

After a couple of years of sharing his time between playing top level school basketball and high jumping in competitions, Oni made a decision to put all his efforts into becoming a professional high jumper. In 1997, he joined up with coach Trevor Llewelyn and began training solely for the high jump 2 times per week.

Rising Star

Between 1997 and 1999, Oni worked hard in mastering the highly technical event of high jumping but he would struggle to keep up with what seemed to be a better class of high jumpers during competitive events. On most occasions his final ranking position would be at the bottom of the table, however, by the end of his 1999 athletics season and at age 19, the fruits of his labour would start to pay off. He won the English Schools Championships that same year and received his first international call-up for the Great Britain junior squad.

In 2000 and in his last year as a junior competitor, Oni achieved an indoor personal best of 2.19m (7 ft 2 in) and won a silver medal at the senior British Indoor Championships. The performance ranked him 3rd in the world within his own junior age category. With such a high level of performance, Oni was expected to easily make the World Junior Championship team that year but it wasn’t to be. “I hadn’t jumped very well at the trial event and there were other jumpers who did jump well so the selectors went with them, although none of them had jumped higher than me that year” Oni says. “Because I knew that I was one of the best jumpers in the world in the lead up to the Championships, the news of non-selection was heart-breaking”. This was followed by even more grief when, 4 weeks later, the final results came in from the Championships. “I saw that my best on paper would have earned no less than a 4th place finish at a world event.”

Having lost his last opportunity to make a mark on the world junior stage, Oni was forced to move on and set new goals for his official up and coming under-23 age group début.

In 2001, Oni enrolled at Loughborough University, one of the country’s leading universities, and was awarded a sports scholarship. He quickly became one of the university’s most known sports figures. Unfortunately for Oni, the majority of his time at the institution was riddled with injury and he was only able to compete on a handful of occasions. Nevertheless, he did not leave without earning at least one gold medal for the institution at the British University Championships. Alongside his time spent at Loughborough University, Oni also earned two consecutive Great Britain selections for the under-23 European Championships. In 2004, he finished his bachelor’s degree in sports science and graduated with a 2:1 grade.

Professional Career

Turning pro the season after graduation wasn’t exactly filled with success for Oni. He battled with persistent injury and was unable to make the sort of advancements that was expected of him. In 2005 and one year after his graduation, Oni began to resolve the five-year injury problem that he had been suffering with. With the help of new treatment methods and a new medical team behind him, he was able to finally focus on competing injury-free. He finished the season ranked as British number 4 that year.

In the 2006 track season, Oni started reaping the rewards of his injury treatments and finally began to make substantial improvements on what seemed like six years of stagnation on his performance. He achieved two personal best marks that year and quickly improved his all-time record to a height of 2.24m (7 ft 4 in). His nationwide ranking remained on 4^th place on the list.

However, the surge in Oni’s performances continued into 2007 where he became Britain’s 5^th all-time best high jumper by leaping a height of 2.28m (7 ft 6 in). “My true welcome to top flight athletics was at the 2007 indoor season when I went head-2-head with the world number 1 at the time and Swedish high jumper Stefan Holm,” Oni admits. “I came 2^nd to him in a field of twelve of the world’s best high jumpers. That’s when I knew my potential was starting to materialise.” However, with his compatriots working hard to deny his resurgence, Oni’s final British ranking that year had once again remained at 4^th place.

As a pro, Oni was starting to match the same success he’d had as a junior athlete, but he wanted to be the best in the world and knew he needed to produce even better performances to receive a level of recognition equal to the amount of hard work he had put into his practice and training. The breakthrough came in 2008 where a world-class performance by Oni enrolled him as a new member to the exclusive 2.30m (7 ft 6.6 in) high jump club! The performance was at the British Indoor Championship and earned him the prestige title of British Champion and a qualification mark for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. That year, Oni made his way up the British ranking to 2nd on the list.

In Recent Years

After the 2008 season, Oni spent some time away from his London home and away from his training base to rest and spend some much needed time with his family in the city of Atlanta, Georgia. In 2009, and without much training, he returned to the UK for competition and remarkably maintained his 2nd place on the British ranking list with a season best performance of 2.29m (7 ft 6.2 in). This would be Oni’s penultimate journey to the top of the British ranking list as in 2010 he would go on to finally earn the number 1 spot with a leap of 2.31m (7 ft 7 in) and establishing himself as one of the best high jumpers in the world.

To learn a little about Samson’s professional career outside of the arena, click here.