My dream has been achieved – Abigail Kwarteng’s focus on Paris Olympics

United States (US)-based Ghanaian athlete, Abigail Kwarteng, has set her eyes on participating in next year’s Olympic Games in Paris and says she is working hard to fulfil her next sporting goal after completing her academic pursuit at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU).

Last week, Kwarteng capped off her experience at the university by earning a Master’s degree in Public Health and said her next goal was to compete for Ghana in the high jump event at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

For the long jump women’s national record holder, participating in the Olympics is every athlete’s dream and has, therefore, channelled her energies into qualifying for the biggest global sporting event.

“Honestly, as an athlete, the Olympics is almost everybody’s dream,” said Kwarteng after graduating on May 6. “However, I wouldn’t say I realised it was my Olympic dream until my time at MTSU,” she told MTSU News.

The 26-year-old Kwarteng arrived at the university with an impressive track record and a great deal of experience, having competed in American collegiate athletics for Western Texas College, as well as some national and international high jump championships. Under her coach Andrew Owusu, a public health professor at MTSU and three-time Olympian for Ghana, Kwarteng continued her impressive performances, ending 2022 as the second-ranked high jumper in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and the 26th-ranked high jumper in the world.