The University of Technology in the capital Kingston has a good athletes’ club. Sports academies provide running gear, jerseys, spikes, food, accommodation and travel expenses for our athletes who compete internationally.Īre there good track and field training facilities in Jamaica? Yes, but they don’t support young talents, they only give stipends to athletes who represent the country at an international level. The problem is that they have no money to help young talents on their way up. The JAAA is in charge of athletes at the national level. Either the newcomers receive sponsorship from a private-sector company, or they are supported by the state-run Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA), which is the body that governs the Jamaican track and fields sport. Once young athletes are identified, what institutions support them? In contrast, Usain Bolt has no university degree, but he can live off his sponsors. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the world champion in 100 metre dash and Olympic winner, has a university degree and owns her own business, a hair parlour. But on the positive side, the females are often better at academics, so they have better chances of getting university scholarships. Usually the boys join the police or military, and the girls get pregnant. What becomes of young athletes who don’t make it, but who have given up school for a sports career? He is also the best-paid sportsman in the history of track and field. This Jamaican sprinter has won six Olympic gold medals, 11 world championships, and he holds the world records in 100 and 200 metres dash and – together together with his teammates – the 4 x 100 metres relay. But not everybody can become the next Usain Bolt. A quitter never wins, and a winner never quits. They want to be discovered and supported by a talent scout in order to become the next Usain Bolt! I tell them: You need hard work, self-discipline, time and commitment. I want the children to concentrate on their school achievements, first and foremost. Personally, as a track and field coach, I always point out to the kids in my team that they need to balance their sports and academic performance. Some of them will drop out after high school, because they don’t have the grades to go on to university and get support like a sports scholarship. But if young runners are also good at an academic level, they can go abroad to train, mostly to the USA. If somebody is merely good at sports, that is not enough to get a scholarship. Such options are usually linked to their school performance. Kids from poor backgrounds and rural schools typically don’t receive enough support.ĭo young athletes have to go abroad to train professionally? Patience and willpower must be trained too. Often you know you have a talented runner, but there are no coaches available to carry and support him or her. When such talent is identified, you have to build on it. I first look at their physical appearance – generally, sprinters have high butts, and long-distance runners have flat butts. It is also important to see who can go a long way. Well, it’s not only about competition results. How do you identify a talented runner in a bunch of rural children? The small rural schools lose the talents. For instance, some better-equipped schools promise parents to exempt them from school fees so the child changes to their school. Sports coaches from richer areas grab the talented runners. The schools need sponsors some do fundraising. Schools in poor rural areas cannot offer their pupils anything in support, not even track shoes. But the geographical location matters too. Schools are very important, because it is through school-sports events that talented kids are detected, and they help promising runners get into proper competitions. All people come and watch, and this is how talents are spotted. The competitions are tough, and the schools send their best runners to represent them. All schools have sports competitions, including at the regional level. Mostly at an early age of up to 11 or 12 years, when they are in primary or prep school. When do sports professionals spot young talents in Jamaica? In the communities, everybody knows which kid is a good runner. In rural communities, kids don’t walk to school – they run. In order to get to school, they have to go up and down the hills. And the children are fit, they don’t take buses – often because they lack the money for public transport. The local Jamaican diet includes yellow yam, with strong carbohydrates which give you stamina. Why is Jamaica so prominent in athletics, especially running?įitness relates to food.
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