Ruky Abdulai grew up in Western Africa but wanted to compete for Canada. The teenager was a track and field star – in more ways than one – in Ghana but wanted to live somewhere peaceful like Canada. Her spectacular results in long jump, high jump, triple jump, hurdles and relays earned her offers from big schools in the United States.

Then one day an email arrived from Simon Fraser University coach Brit Townsend and Abdulai immediately became determined to not only go to SFU, but to also become a Canadian citizen and represent her new homeland at the Olympics.

She accomplished all three claiming 17 NAIA titles – which is a NAIA record – getting her citizenship and competing in the high jump at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. After gaining citizenship, Abdulai set a Canadian long jump record with a leap of 6.72 metres.