Timing is everything in track and field. And the timing is working out to where Abdul-Rasheed Saminu could eventually hold triple-status as an Olympian, a world champion, and one of the best college sprinters in the sport.

Saminu is a 22-year-old sophomore at the University of South Florida. He is originally from Ghana, and is a practicing Muslim. At the NCAA outdoor track and field championships this past weekend in Eugene, Oregon, Saminu placed 3rd in the 200-meter dash and 5th in the 100-meter dash. He set personal-best times in both events, clocking 20.12 seconds in the 200, and 10.02 seconds in the 100.

Following his breakout college season, Saminu could also make his Olympic debut this summer. His most recent time in the 200 satisfies the qualifying standard for the 2024 Paris Games, and in the last couple of years he’s been part of the roster for Ghana’s national 4×100-meter relay team, which has also qualified for the Paris Olympics. That means Saminu is eligible to compete in the Olympics if his native country chooses as a representative — and he could run in multiple events at the world’s biggest track meet.

Saminu could potentially leave 2024 and enter 2025 with Olympic and NCAA All-American accolades on his resume. Then, in 2025, following his junior year in college, the World Athletics Championships will be held in Tokyo. Saminu could qualify for that meet as well with another strong NCAA campaign. If he chooses to stay in school for his senior year rather than leave early to pursue a professional career, things are lining up for Saminu to be in position in 2026 to enter his senior-year NCAA outdoor championships with Olympic and World Championships experience (maybe even medals?) under his belt, and compete for multiple national titles as well.

But that’s future prognosticating. To bring the focus back to the present, Saminu is making history at South Florida. His national top-five finishes in the 100 and 200 made him the first track athlete in his school’s history to earn First-Team All-American status in two events in the same year. (Saminu also anchored USF’s 4×100 relay squad in Eugene, but they failed to make it to the finals.) He also won American Athletic Conference titles in the 100, 200, and 4×100 this year, and broke USF school records in the 100 meters (9.95 seconds, wind-aided) and the indoor 60-meter dash (6.57 seconds), and he was on the 4×100 relay team that ran a school-record time (38.44 seconds).

This was all in Saminu’s first year of competing on the NCAA Division I level. As a freshman in 2023, he attended Florida Memorial University, an NAIA school, where he won national titles in the indoor 60 and outdoor 100. Before college, Saminu went to Al-Azhariyya Islamic High School in Ghana.

As great as the spring of 2024 was for Saminu, the summer could see him reach even more milestones. And from there, the possibilities seem endless.