Fay­ola K J Fras­er

Women in sports have made in­cred­i­ble strides over the past few decades, break­ing bar­ri­ers and set­ting records that were once deemed un­at­tain­able. From the fields of foot­ball to the courts of ten­nis to the track, no­table women have risen in the ranks, ex­celling in their re­spec­tive sports, cham­pi­oning gen­der equal­i­ty, and gar­ner­ing buy-in for fe­male sports.

De­spite these ad­vance­ments, the jour­ney to­wards true equal­i­ty in sports is far from over. Track and field is one of the sports where women, par­tic­u­lar­ly Caribbean women, have risen to fame and be­come house­hold names. Re­cent­ly named the 2024 Sports­woman of the Year by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Olympic Com­mit­tee and the T&T Na­tion­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion of Ath­let­ic As­so­ci­a­tions, Leah Bertrand is quick­ly be­com­ing a stand­out ath­lete, col­lect­ing awards and gain­ing sig­nif­i­cant recog­ni­tion.

Born in 2002, tal­ent­ed sprint­er Bertrand hails from Point Fortin and at­tend­ed AS­JA Girls Col­lege. An all-around sports­woman, she played vol­ley­ball and ran track dur­ing sec­ondary school but was ini­tial­ly more fo­cused on vol­ley­ball. In Form 2, she com­pet­ed in a school sports meet where one of the PE teach­ers at the school saw her abil­i­ties and rec­om­mend­ed she join a track and field club to hone her bur­geon­ing tal­ent.

She joined Sim­plex Ath­let­ics Club, the home club to many na­tion­al ath­letes who have com­pet­ed on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage. Bertrand’s tal­ent con­tin­ued to de­vel­op, and she com­pet­ed in var­i­ous ju­nior track meets, such as the CARIF­TA Games, the NACAC Cham­pi­onships, where she won the sil­ver medal, and the U23 Caribbean Games, where she won gold in the 4x100m re­lay.

She was ac­cept­ed in­to the Ohio State Uni­ver­si­ty af­ter sec­ondary school and re­mains a stu­dent there at present, now in her se­nior year, slat­ed to grad­u­ate in April 2025. Bertrand is not on­ly a stel­lar mem­ber of the col­lege track and field team, earn­ing var­i­ous ac­co­lades in track meets through­out her years, while al­so bal­anc­ing her stud­ies in Health and Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Sci­ences.

She mus­es that she “was al­ways in­ter­est­ed in the sci­ences and al­ways want­ed to work in health­care” and has found her niche in her course of study, which al­so in­cor­po­rates her love of sports. “I can’t trans­late the ex­pe­ri­ence.

Talk­ing about it doesn’t do it jus­tice.” Her de­but in the Olympic Games held in Paris in 2024 as a new­ly mint­ed 22 year old was noth­ing short of in­de­scrib­able. “To be part of some­thing so big, the en­er­gy and sup­port from the crowd, to run against some of the great com­peti­tors in the sport was so in­cred­i­ble.”

She com­pet­ed in the Women’s 100m, mak­ing it to the semi­fi­nal round, and was a mem­ber of the T&T 4x100 Women’s Re­lay team.

She al­so feels ho­n­oured to rep­re­sent T&T and felt so much sup­port the en­tire way. “From when it was an­nounced I’d be com­pet­ing un­til it was done,” she added. Bertrand con­sid­ers her­self blessed to have made it to the pin­na­cle of com­pe­ti­tion in the sport­ing world and con­tin­ues to train for her next op­por­tu­ni­ty.

One of her per­son­al goals is to achieve a sub-11 time in the Women’s 100 events, with her per­son­al best record in 2023 at 11.08 sec­onds, which led her to win the Big Ten Cham­pi­onships in Bloom­ing­ton, In­di­ana. Her rig­or­ous train­ing sched­ule con­sists of five to six days of train­ing per week, which she al­so con­tin­ues to bal­ance with her school­work.

When asked how she is able to strike the bal­ance, she said that com­mu­ni­ca­tion was key. Where she has to pri­ori­tise one or the oth­er, she en­sures she keeps in con­sis­tent com­mu­ni­ca­tion with her teach­ers and coach­es to let them know. She al­so cred­its her or­gan­i­sa­tion­al skills as cru­cial to en­sure she ex­cels both in the class­room and on the track.

As not on­ly an ath­lete but an in­spi­ra­tion to a younger gen­er­a­tion of sports­women, she en­cour­ages young women not to be in­tim­i­dat­ed or de­mo­ti­vat­ed from get­ting in­to sports be­cause of it be­ing a male-dom­i­nat­ed field. “Find a woman to look up to,” she says. “I used to look up to Shelly-Ann (Fras­er Pryce) when I was younger, or any old­er women do­ing what I was hop­ing to achieve.”

She al­so ad­vised that self-be­lief is a cor­ner­stone of her progress and ad­vance­ment. “Track your progress, set your goals, and see your im­prove­ments with­out com­par­ing your­self to any­one else,” she says.

Bertrand’s ded­i­ca­tion to her sport and her coun­try con­tin­ues to gain recog­ni­tion, as she has al­so been nom­i­nat­ed for the il­lus­tri­ous First Cit­i­zens Bank Sports Awards held yes­ter­day.

Mus­ing on her fu­ture, she said she takes every­thing one day and one meet at a time but is at present fo­cused on “stay­ing healthy and com­pet­ing at the World Cham­pi­onships lat­er this year to rep­re­sent T&T.”

As she con­tin­ues to pur­sue her pas­sion, wav­ing the flag high for T&T, this young sports­woman is set to cre­ate ma­jor waves in the world of track and field.