For athletes around the world, going to the Olympics marks the greatest moment of a lifetime. It’s the event hopefuls plan their whole lives around, sacrificing other experiences and opportunities for a chance to push the boundaries of their sports and bring glory to their nation. So what happens when the games you’ve been waiting for your whole life get canceled?
This was the fate of all Caribbean athletes when the Tokyo 2021 Olympics were postponed for a year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Isolated from their peers and unable to maintain their usual training regimens as facilities closed down, these sports stars had to find a way over the emotional and mental hurdles. Caribbean Olympians Briana Williams, Damion Thomas, Danusia Francis, and Mulern Jean stared down these challenges head-on and never blinked. This July, they will mount their Olympic bids for the Tokyo 2021 Olympics.
These are their stories, marked by perseverance, mental fortitude and courage.
Briana Williams
Young Jamaican track star Briana Williams is ready to pick up where she left off in 2019, when she was touted as one of the world’s next great sprinters.
The COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench into her bid to compete on track’s biggest stage at 18 years old, but she believes using the delay to fine-tune her technique and speed with coach Ato Boldon could become her secret weapon.
“Last year, starting in March, we anticipated the Olympics would be postponed, with meets being canceled left and right,” said Williams. “I wasn’t sad. I was more upset [because] I could have gone there at 18. However, it just gave me more time to get stronger and work on what I need to work on.”
While two-time Olympic sprint champion Elaine Thompson-Herah is still considered the Jamaican sprinter to beat and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, one of the most decorated athletes of all time, should still prove formidable, much of the spotlight will fall on Williams who is being hailed as the heir apparent.
“Competing for Jamaica means a lot to me,” Williams said. “Jamaica has such a rich history in track and field. Arguably the number one or two country in track and field.”
From Amateur Athletic Union track prodigy in South Florida to record-setter in the World Athletics U20 Championships, Williams has been on a steady trajectory to superstardom. Now, as she prepares to face her stiffest competition yet, she is conceding nothing. “There are no nerves,” Williams said. “I have worked hard for this. I know what I have to do. I will go in there with a lot of confidence and faith and know what I have to do.”
Briana is looking to build on a spectacular resume that already includes the world age-15 record (11.13) in the 100 meters, and the Jamaican national under-18 and under-20 records in both the 100 meters and 200 meters. At the CARIFTA Games in 2018, she won the under-17 100 meters in a meet record, added the 200-meter title, and led the Jamaica 4×100 team to victory.
The icing on the 2018 cake was, at 16 years old, becoming the youngest athlete ever to win a sprint double ― with gold in both 100 and 200 meters ― at the 2018 IAAF World U20 Championships. She was only the seventh athlete to do so in history. In 2019, she returned to the CARIFTA Games and won the Austin Sealy MVP award for the second consecutive year, earning her sixth gold medal in two years.
We interviewed Williams before she left for the Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) Relays in California, a competitive warm-up for the Olympics. “My goal is to run 10.8 this season,” said Williams. “Mt. SAC will tell me where I am. Before the trials I just want to be healthy and perfect my form. I just hope to do my best. I just want to go there and get better after that. 2020 really didn’t ruin anything for me. It just stinks knowing that people were affected by this virus. That is the part that really hurts.”
Danusia Francis
When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down training at her gym, gymnast Danusia Francis, who represents Jamaica, used her ingenuity to keep her Olympic dreams alive. When she was unable to work out with her coach, their Zoom training sessions became a lifeline. Practicing at home, however, required some adaptations.
“Nobody has that full-sized equipment in their house and gardens,” Francis said. “So we used the stairs for strength and conditioning, and toilet rolls for other exercises.” Despite the challenge, “our coach did a great job of keeping us motivated. The pandemic showed you how unexpected life is. And to just cherish the moments.”
Francis is certainly cherishing the opportunity to represent Jamaica. Though she was born in the UK, her father is originally from Jamaica ― granting her the opportunity to compete for her ancestral island. She secured her place in the 2020 Games by finishing ninth among the 20 gymnasts competing at the 2019 World Championships who were not on a qualifying Olympic team.
The one-year delay, however, presented some emotional challenges. In addition to losing a relative to COVID-19, Francis had to re-evaluate all of her life plans. “It makes it more difficult, how you plan your training around your timeline and building yourself up,” Francis explained. “I am a bit older, so it is also delaying the end of my career too, if I decide to retire after these Olympics. Just mentally and emotionally trying to stay motivated, and physically as well.”
A six-time All-American gymnast and 2016 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Balance Beam Co-Champion, Francis has started to imagine life post-Olympics. She has parlayed her success and charisma into stunt double roles for movies like “Wonder Woman 1984” and “The Midnight Sky.”
Competing for Jamaica since 2015, she also wants to leave a legacy for aspiring Jamaican gymnasts beyond just competition. She was a special guest at the grand opening of the National Gymnastics Training Centre in Kingston in November 2019 and believes it’s just a matter of time before gymnastics takes a foothold on the island.
“That was the reason I switched to Jamaica in the world of gymnastics,” Francis said. “It was to show the youth that the Olympics in gymnastics is an option. To be a part of that is special. It feels amazing. Crazy to know I can tell my children in the future that I was part of the Jamaican Olympic team. One day I will see a Jamaican gymnast winning gold, and I will feel so much pride.”
Mulern Jean
After waiting four years to set the record straight after her mishap at the 2016 Olympics, Haiti’s 100-meter hurdles star Mulern Jean had to wait one more. The 2020 Olympics delay stretched Jean to another level of patience. “When I first found out they were postponing it, I was sad,” Jean confessed. “But I took a step back, and that just gave me more time to prepare. To enhance my training and improve in areas I lack.”
Jean, a former star at Blanche Ely High School, Charleston Southern University and Florida State University, said the disappointment of being disqualified in the preliminaries at the 2016 Olympics was the driving force behind her getting to the Tokyo Olympics later this summer.
“That is why this is so important,” Jean said. “I plan on making it past the prelims and making it to the finals. That would be very special to me.”
Once the initial disappointment of not being able to compete in 2020 subsided, Jean found a silver lining in the extra time to recover from a torn knee ligament she suffered in 2019. She has a personal best of 12.94 seconds, which she set in Jacksonville in 2017, and is aiming to run 12.84 seconds to qualify for the Olympics.
“It means a lot for me,” said Jean. “I really want to put the [flag of the] country on my back and represent us. Even if it’s just a handful of athletes ― to show that this little country, Haiti, has athletes too. I do plan on setting or breaking the national record.”
Damion Thomas
For Damion Thomas to put his best foot forward, he had to take a step back. The pandemic shut down his sophomore season at Louisiana State University (LSU), thrusting his career into uncertainty, though it was poised to take off for the Jamaican 110-meter hurdles Olympic hopeful.
“We got the news a day prior to the 2020 indoor nationals in New Mexico,” Thomas recalled. “It was heartbreaking. The first month, it hit [me] mentally.”
Flash forward a year, and the improved diet regimen Thomas instituted during the layoff paid off with a world-leading best of 13.22 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in March. The world record time was vindication for Thomas, who had endured season-ending injuries in past years.
“March and April of 2020 really allowed me to mentally develop a clean slate as far as what goals I want to set and maintain [for] my body and eating the right things,” Thomas said. “Before 2020, I was not doing what I needed to do with hydrating. This year [of] quarantine made me set my goals out and be serious about maintaining my body. It has paid off too.”
The world record followed another major success, as he earned his first 60-meter hurdles national title at 7.51 seconds. It was the fifth-fastest in NCAA history.
Thomas, a former Oakland Park Northeast High School star who recently graduated from LSU, believes this momentum will carry over through to the Jamaican Olympic trials. While 2016 Olympic gold medalist and 2017 World Champion Omar McLeod will be the man to beat at the Jamaican Olympic trials, Thomas said the support from his family makes him formidable.
“I know it is going to be tough, but shoot, I live for this. It is what I’m ready for,” said Thomas. “Once I get to Tokyo, it’s about living that experience and getting on the podium. This will really be for my family. My dad and mom. My aunts and uncles and grandmas who picked me up and brought me to high school practice. They have all made their sacrifices for me. That is my first gift of giving back to them.”
