Interview with Ade Adepitan MBE

Q. How did I find out that I’d got an MBE?

Ade Adepitan: Well, it's a really funny story actually…

I was actually in Manchester, preparing for the inaugural Paralympic World Cup, and I was in the hotel room with one of my team mates, and my phone rang, and I answered the phone and it was my sister on the line, and she said to me: "Are you expecting a letter?". And a letter had apparently gone to my mum’s house, so I didn’t receive it. And I said: "Why, what do you mean?". And she said: "Well, you've got a letter and it’s stamped from 10 Downing street", and she said: "Have you done anything?" and I was like "What you're talking about?!". And I started to rack through my brain whether there was a traffic light I jumped or maybe I've done something I shouldn't have done, I mean I thought I was generally a nice guy.

And she said to me: "Shall I open it?" so I said: "Yeah, open it, open it!”. And I was getting really really worried, and she opened it and she said: "Oh My God!" And I was like: "What, what have I done? What's happened?" and then I could hear my mum in the background go: "Oh my god, yeah yeah yeah! My son! My son!" And I was like: "What's going on? Tell me, What's in the letter?" And then she said: "You've been nominated to be given an MBE!!"

And I was like: "Oh My God" I just absolutely couldn't believe it. You know, it was a total shock. And than she said: underneath it said: you are not allowed to tell anybody until this is officially mentioned at the end of the month. And I was like "What? What?" and I made all this noise, and my team mate who was in the hotel room had listened and he thought obviously something was wrong and he was going at me: "what's up Ad? What's up?" and I had to make up a story, and I was like: "Oh yeah, my mum's roof caved in in her house. It's awful, really terrible Steve.” And he looked at me like: "… are you okay? You okay?" and I was like: "yeah, yeah". And I had to go through the whole Paralympic World Cup and the whole month without telling anybody that I had got an MBE, but I felt just so proud and so overjoyed. Yeah, that was a cool moment.

Q. Some people think it's possible to empower yourself. Is that true?

A. Yes of course!

Ade Adepitan: I believe completely that it is possible to empower yourself. I'm someone who's very into going out there and having that sense of wonderment, you know – trying to surprise yourself, go out there and do something that you thought just weren’t possible for you to achieve. And I'm not talking about things that are totally out of your reach. I'm not saying you can become Neil Armstrong and be the next man or woman to fly on the moon or you could be the next person to break the 100 meter world record. I'm just talking about achievable things, you know, maybe run the London marathon, maybe run a 5K or a 10K, maybe set yourself a target in your exams. Say you wanna get slightly better than you thought you could, by working a little bit harder. You know, just pushing yourself that little bit extra, trying to become something that you thought you never could do. You know, maybe you've always dreamt of becoming an artist – you know, it's all about going out there and not setting yourself any boundaries, not giving yourself any limitations, you know, just trying to prove to yourself that you could be better that what you are. I think if you go out there and you just do that thing that surprises you, that thing that gives you that sense of wonderment – it's such an overwhelming and empowering feeling, it's a feeling that makes you feel that you can absolutely achieve anything in this world. So, I say to people: go out there, go and surprise yourself.

Q. Some people say that school sports was very important for me. Is that true?

A. No, it wasn’t!

Ade Adepitan: School sports actually wasn't that important to me. I mean, I couldn't even get in my school football team. When I used to be able to walk on callipers, I remember asking my school football teacher if I could play in goal and he laughed me out of school basically. But I was really fortunate to discover wheelchair basketball as I was being raced through the streets in a shopping trolley by my mates, cause that was the fastest way for me to get from A to B, we had skills. But I was spotted by two physiotherapists who were based in east London in Newham, and their job was to make sure that guys with disabilities – their sporting needs were taken care of. And I was lost in the system but they spotted me by just total coincidence and asked me if I'd like to play wheelchair basketball. I looked at them and I thought: wheelchair basketball – are you crazy?! How can people in wheelchairs play basketball? That's just not right. But I was really lucky, because they were persistent. They came to my school, they spoke to my parents and they convinced me to go to Stoke Mandeville, which is the home of disability sports, and when I got there I saw some guys from the Great Britain wheelchair basketball team playing basketball and I was completely blown away by their skills. You know, the way they flew up & down the court, they hit three points shots, they were doing things that my friends at school could only dream of. And suddenly at that moment I realized that this is the sport for me!

Q. Do I enjoy scuba diving and skiing?

A. Yes I do!

Ade Adepitan: I am a complete adrenaline junky. The faster, the higher, the quicker, the crazier, I love it! Because that is what I'm all about.

Q. My parents made big sacrifices to help me, true or false?

A. Yes they did!

Ade Adepitan: Yes, my parents made huge sacrifices to help me. I was born in Nigeria and my parents came from a tiny village just outside Lagos. They saved up all their money so my father could come over to the UK. And he worked over in the UK in tough conditions and saved up enough money to bring my mum and myself over to London, so we could have a better life. And it didn't really strike home how much of a sacrifice they'd made until couple of years back, when I went back to Nigeria and I saw where we came from, you know, I saw the tiny village and I saw the poverty there and the different way of life and how hard it was for people with disabilities over there. So, you know, the kind of sacrifices that they made – I would be eternally grateful. Because, if it wasn't for them I wouldn't be here, talking with you in front of this camera with a big smile on my face. So, enough respect for my mum and dad.

Q. My parents were delighted when I started playing wheelchair basketball. True or false?

A. False!

Ade Adepitan: My parents were actually horrified when they saw that I was into wheelchair basketball and I quote my father and I have to do it in his accent, and he used to say to me: "You are black. You are disabled. Why do you want to play wheelchair basketball? Wheelchair basketball will never get you anywhere in this life! Ah Ah!” So yeah, they weren't into me playing basketball. But, things worked out well in the end.

Q. What's my favorite movie?

A. "He got game"

Ade Adepitan: "He got game" – my favorite movie. He got game, I got game, you got game! Denzel Washington, Jesus Shuttleworth, Spike Lee, loving it!

Q. What's my favorite music?

A. Hard core drum & bass

Ade Adepitan: Brrrr. Boom. You're correct! One time selecta! Yes, I love hard core Drum & Bass because I like my music hard core, funky & bassy.

Q. How did I feel when I first got into the Paralympics?

Ade Adepitan: Ah, when I first managed to get into the great Britain Paralympic team I would say it was probably the best day of my life. It was a combination of nearly 14 years of hard work and dreaming and thinking that I would never get there, cause I had so many setbacks along the way. And so when the letter came through the door, and I opened up that letter and it said: "Ade Adepitan, you are a member of the Great Britain wheelchair basketball team", it's really hard to put into words how I felt. I was just, you know, overjoyed, I felt like all my dreams had come true, and I felt that all of the hard work, the tears, the suffering, the arguments with my family and my parents, you know, I felt that it was all worth it in the end. And when I finally got out there to Sydney, my smile was probably a 360 degrees smile, you know, I was probably smiling at the back of my head, because it was just fantastic, dream come true, and I'll never ever forget that moment.

Q. What was the proudest moment of my athletic career?

Ade Adepitan: Well, I mean, I've had so many amazing moments. Actually getting into the Great Britain team was an extremely proud moment for me. Competing in the Paralympics was a proud moment for me, captaining the Great Britain side was just like an extreme honor, that was something that I was so pleased to get, and winning a silver medal out at the World Championships was fantastic. But I suppose you know, it has to come down to, you know, winning that medal, that bronze medal in the Paralympics, because it was disappointing that we didn't get to the final, but we'd had such a tough year, and myself particularly, because I'd been dropped from the team at the beginning of the year. And I didn't find out that I'd made the Great Britain squad for the Athens Paralympics until was about a month before the Paralympics, and I was the last person to be selected. I thought that my career had ended and I'd finished my career without going into another Paralympics. And then, all of the sudden I'm going. And then I'm in the quarter finals, and I'm on the line shooting two of the most important shots that any player would ever take for their team – the two shots that could help win the game and send us through to the semi-finals. And you know, when that moment came about, people often ask me: "Was I nervous?" And you know what? I wasn't nervous, because I somehow thought that it was fate, it was destiny. And I'm sure that if my next door neighbor was watching he would remember me as a kid and all the moments that I would be saying: "And Ade Adepitan scores the winning goal!" Because I always used to pretend that I was playing football, and talk about scoring the winning goal. And that moment actually happened. And to score those baskets, to make those shots, for me, was just probably the - no, not probably, DEFINITELY the most proudest moment of my life. I still smile now when I think about it. Loving it!