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Meet Australian athlete who worked in a supermarket and saved for 3 years to sponsor herself to Tokyo 2020

Friday, August 06, 2021 at 7:01 AM by Ebenezer Agbey Quist Aba Afful 2 min read

Riley Day made history at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after becoming Australia's fastest woman at the Summer Games
The 21-year-old recently crashed out of the 200m women's event at the semifinal stage after finishing fourth
Riley had to go through so much to save for three years for this event after failing to secure any corporate sponsor

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Riley Day may have crashed out of the 200m women's event at the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, she has however won several fans to herself in the process.

The 21-year-old athlete finished fourth in her semifinal race with a time of 22.56 seconds but failed to advance to the final of the event.

She became an online sensation when it became obvious that she had no corporate sponsor going to games, thereby dividing her attention from preparations.

Australian Olympian With No Sponsors Worked At Woolworths To Fund Her Trip To Tokyo — Riley Day not too happy after failing to reach Tokyo 2020 200m women's final event. Photo by Ryan Pierse
Source: Getty Images

Reports now have it that Riley worked at Woolworths for about three years to save every penny she made to fund the trip to the summer events.

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However, despite failing to advance to the final, she recorded her personal best in the semifinals after finishing at a time of 22.56 seconds and became the eighth fastest time for an Australian woman in the event as reported by Sport Bible.

Her impressive display earned her a number of fans who felt proud of her achievement at the end of her outing.

Still in Tokyo, Tamyra Mensah-Stock, a young lady in the United States whose father was from Ghana, has made history by becoming the first Black woman to win gold in Wrestling in the history of the Olympics.

Newyork Times reports that women’s wrestling was added to the Summer Olympics in 2004 but since then, no Black woman ever won the ultimate prize.