JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Sunday, May 4, 2025

Sole and Sanaa - T&T’s sprint twins

Sis­ters aim­ing for gold in Paris Olympics

by

280 days ago
20240726

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

Sole and Sanaa Fred­er­ick are part of T&T’s 17-mem­ber con­tin­gent at the Paris Olympics which got un­der­way on Fri­day.

The 18-year-old twin sis­ters sprint­ed on­to the women’s 4x100m re­lay team af­ter fin­ish­ing sec­ond and fourth re­spec­tive­ly at the NGC Na­tion­al Ju­nior and Se­nior Track and Field Cham­pi­onships at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um on June 29.

They are the youngest of the sev­en women (six in track and field and one in swim­ming) rep­re­sent­ing T&T in Paris. How­ev­er, they are no strangers to na­tion­al du­ty as they first donned the na­tion­al colours at the Carif­ta Games in the Ba­hamas last year.

Sanaa won the Girls un­der-20 200m and was third in the 100m. The sib­lings then helped T&T to sil­ver in the 4x100m and 4x400m re­lays.

In ad­di­tion, Sanaa se­cured sil­ver with the women’s 4x100m team at the Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean Games in El Sal­vador and was third in the Girls 100m fi­nals at the Com­mon­wealth Youth Games host­ed at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um.

In the mixed 4x100m, the sis­ters helped T&T to bronze.

At this year’s Carif­ta Games in Grena­da Sole cap­tured sil­ver in the Girls un­der 200m, then teamed up with Sanaa and land­ed an­oth­er sil­ver in 4x100m, while Sanaa earned sil­ver in the 4x400m.

The twins, who at­tend Druid Hills High School in Geor­gia in the Unit­ed States, still have not got­ten over the ex­cite­ment of qual­i­fy­ing for the Olympic Games, the biggest glob­al sports event.

“I was in dis­be­lief, but al­so very ex­cit­ed. It hasn’t re­al­ly hit me yet, but I feel like once I get to Paris it will def­i­nite­ly hit me,” Sanaa said in an in­ter­view be­fore the Olympics.

“I feel great to make the Olympic team at 18 years old, one of the youngest. This is my biggest ac­com­plish­ment in my ca­reer so far.”

She de­scribed get­ting the call con­firm­ing her se­lec­tion from the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) as com­fort­ing.

“It was def­i­nite­ly a big re­lief, but I am al­so very ex­cit­ed to rep­re­sent Trinidad and To­ba­go in such big games. Mak­ing the team at such a young age is such a bless­ing but know­ing that I am this young and mak­ing the Olympic team makes me ex­cit­ed about mak­ing fu­ture Olympic and ma­jor teams,” she said.

Sole ad­mit­ted that when she took up track and field in 2021 the Olympics were not on her mind.

“I start­ed run­ning track three years ago and nev­er thought I would be in the po­si­tion I am in to­day, not even with just mak­ing the Olympic team but every­thing else I have ac­com­plished this sea­son.”

The Olympics came in­to the pic­ture for Sanaa af­ter her coach­es, fa­ther Pe­ter Fred­er­ick and Jami­al Roles, con­vinced her to try for a spot on the T&T team.

She re­called: “At the be­gin­ning of this year my coach­es def­i­nite­ly had mak­ing the Olympic team in the plan for the sea­son. I de­cid­ed I want­ed to be­cause I re­al­ized that my coach­es had faith in me that I could make it.”

Sole and Sanaa are the first twins to rep­re­sent T&T at the Olympics. Sole said she is hap­py to share that spe­cial ex­pe­ri­ence with her iden­ti­cal twin.

“It feels great to have my sis­ter by my side while we both our ful­fill­ing our dreams to­geth­er. She has been there for me through all the good and bad and I would not want any­one else by my side to sup­port me phys­i­cal­ly and men­tal­ly like she has,” she said.

Sanaa is elat­ed: “ It is very spe­cial to have my sis­ter with me. The Olympics is def­i­nite­ly a spe­cial and new ex­pe­ri­ence for me so I’m glad to al­ways have her by my side.

“She has been a good sup­port for me, es­pe­cial­ly be­cause at times track can get men­tal­ly hard but know­ing that I al­ways have her by my side and some­one that I can talk to that un­der­stands how I’m feel­ing is def­i­nite­ly a bless­ing.”

The young­sters are out to give their best to help T&T ad­vance from the women’s 4x100m heats on Au­gust 8 in­to the fi­nals on Au­gust 9. Sole’s goal “is to give it my all and do my part no mat­ter what the cir­cum­stances are. And of course, to make it to the fi­nals and po­ten­tial­ly get a medal.” Sanaa has sim­i­lar am­bi­tions. “My goal for the Olympics this year is to give 100% on the re­lay and to hope­ful­ly medal in the 4x1.”

The teens train at the Run­nah Elite Track Club in At­lanta, Geor­gia, and say they ap­pre­ci­ate the sup­port of all the peo­ple who con­tributed to mak­ing their Olympic dream pos­si­ble.

“I want to thank my team­mates and coach­es for keep­ing my head on straight through­out prac­tice, track meets and even with things out­side of track,” Sole said.

“Most im­por­tant­ly I want to give cred­it to the Lord him­self for giv­ing me the mind­set and abil­i­ty to give my all every time I step on track and help me move for­ward even when times get rough.”

Ath­let­ic skills run in the fam­i­ly. The twin’s fa­ther, Pe­ter, is a for­mer na­tion­al sprint­er who reached the semi­fi­nals in the men’s 60m at the 2001 World In­door Track and Field Cham­pi­onships in Lis­bon, Por­tu­gal. The Bon Air Gar­dens res­i­dent al­so won the na­tion­al men’s 200m ti­tle in 1998.

His girls are grate­ful for the fam­i­ly in­put, with Sole stat­ing that “fam­i­ly plays a big role in sup­port­ing me with my ca­reer phys­i­cal­ly and men­tal­ly and fi­nan­cial­ly. I wouldn’t be here with­out them and their sup­port.”

Sanaa added: “The sup­port from my loved ones is im­por­tant in my ath­let­ic ca­reer be­cause it mo­ti­vates me to keep go­ing and know­ing that they be­lieve in me helps me be­lieve that I can ac­com­plish any­thing.”


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored