“Remember what I told you?” her father said. “If anything happens, don’t give up. Your mum is gone.”  

“I don’t want you to lose your mum and a medal.”  

Destiny put down the phone. And then she picked up her discus.   

Before that fateful day, Destiny had already had to face huge adversity in life. When two years old, she fell seriously ill, was rushed to hospital, and was administered an injection that would change the course of her life. Her parents feared they had lost her. They hadn't. But when she recovered, her left leg would never work the same way again. 

She grew up different, and the world made sure she knew it. 

“People abused me because of this leg,” she says. “I didn’t like going to school. When people were discussing something and saw me coming over, they would close the discussion. I hated myself.  

At school she was isolated. At home, she often felt alone. 

“I was not proud of myself,” she says. “I felt like I was not complete because of my leg.  

“Not knowing that it was that leg that would take me to my destination.”  

It was her family who eventually gave her a purpose; a way to understand herself.  

“They told me that this was my destiny, and that it was a good destiny because I was alive. Everyone that is alive has a future.”  

Destiny had no background in Athletics and no training history. But when sport found her by way of an invitation to a National Sports Festival, she said yes.  

“Gym, training day and night. I trained only three weeks for the competition.”  

Before she left for the competition, her mother fell seriously ill. Her father had been clear with her: “Do not come home if the worst happens. This is your lifetime opportunity.” 

“I packed my luggage and went to where my mum was lying down,” she says. “I said, ‘Mommy, I’m coming back.’ And when I come back, we are going to celebrate together because I know you will be okay.”  

Destiny travelled to the event. Three days into the competition, her father called.  

Despite her grief, despite her limited training, Destiny walked to the line and threw.   

“I picked up my discus,” she says. “I said, ‘Mom, I’ll throw this discus for you.’” 

She won a bronze medal in her first national competition and went home a different person.  

“I was free of myself and no one at school was abusing me anymore. I went back to school because the reasons why I was afraid of going to school were gone. Sports have made me open my eyes and see that I am special and I am wonderful.”  

The girl who had hated herself had found, in the arc of a throw, an identity that no one could take from her. 

In 2023, Destiny travelled to Trinidad and Tobago for the Commonwealth Youth Games and made history. Following the integration of Para Athletics into the Games programme, Destiny Agbo became the first ever Para gold medallist at a Commonwealth Youth Games, winning the Women’s Discus Throw F42-44/ F61-64 classifications for ambulant athletes with lower limb impairments competing in standing throws.  

“I couldn’t leave all the way from my country and leave with nothing. I went with courage and walked away with gold.”  

She has attended GAPS camps in Mauritius in 2024 and Stellenbosch in 2026, part of a cohort of athletes given not just technical support but the kind of sustained belief that changes careers.  

“I came to GAPS family and they stood up for me, they helped me, they provide me knowledge, they were part of my destiny helpers.”  

She uses that word without irony. Destiny helpers. As if she has come to understand that her life is not something that happened to her, but something being built, throw by throw, camp by camp, person by person. 

Glasgow 2026 is the next target, and she is going there for a medal.  

“I had a big dream in 2023, I threw past 25 metres. So I’m hoping now to get 45m, 50m is my target. I am nervous, but I am going to win.  

“Sports is my hobby, it’s not because I want to make money, it’s because it’s always in my heart.    

“I found myself in sports, I’m happy, I feel home.”  

This from a girl who once hated herself. Who felt the door close when she walked into a room. Who then put down a phone on the worst day of her life, and picked up a discus. 

Her family told her, long ago, that her destiny was a good one. 

She keeps on proving them right.

GAPS is a multi- stakeholder partnership programme developed for emerging athletes and coaches access to additional skills, knowledge and resources with the aim of advancing coaches education, removing barriers to participation, and supporting the development of inclusive sports pathways that promote positive social change in sport and local communities.  

Watch Destiny's story here...

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Read more about Destiny's journey at the 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games here

As the charitable arm of Commonwealth Sport, since launching in 2020, Commonwealth Sport Foundation (CSF) has helped to equip aspiring and established athletes with the tools to build inclusive, equitable and sustainable futures by breaking down barriers in and beyond sport through programmes such as GAPS. Find out more about the CSF here