International Women’s Day was officially declared by the United Nations on March 8, 1977, to commemorate the cultural, political, and socio-economic achievements of women. The 2022 theme for the celebration was "Break the Bias".
Women have been and are integral to the development of swimming in Trinidad and Tobago. More attention, however, must be placed to ensure our women and girls have a fair opportunity for success in our sports. In the 70-year history of the Amateur Swimming Association of Trinidad and Tobago (ASATT), Hebe Millette, Vilma Cropper, and Hazel Haynes are the three women who have served as president.
Cropper remains the longest serving member of any gender on ASATT’s council. At swim meets, women are ever present on the deck as technical officials in a previously male-dominated sector. Three out of the seven elected officers of ASATT are female.
Fifty percent of our 12 Olympians have been female, with Karen Dieffenthaller-Donahue being the first in 1988. Laura de Neef was part of TTO’s first Commonwealth Games swim team in 1966.
For our annual Open Water swim, a male and female champion are usually identified. However, in 1985 and 1986, Camille Richards-Chatoor had the distinction of defeating all male and female entrants at the event and earn her spot on the commemorative jersey. Her outstanding achievement has earned her part in history. However, it is now time that all the champions on the female side are recognised by having their space on the jersey.
While women have found their way to achievement in the sport, a disturbing trend now presents itself in swimming. In the Aquatic Nugget of January 15, Tokyo Olympian Cherelle Thompson was the only female on Trinidad and Tobago’s top ten FINA point swims of 2021. While COVID presented its challenges, it is unacceptable that in the 13-14 and 15-17 age groups for the recently selected Carifta swimming team, no girls were able to achieve the qualifying times. Of all the swims at the Junior Pan Am last year, Gabriela Donahue’s swim in the 100 metres backstroke made it to the top 10 FINA point swims for Team TTO.
Is it that in Trinidad and Tobago our male swimmers are more talented that females, or is it a question of competency in our coaching which prohibits us from dealing with the intricacies of female gender in the development of aquatic excellence? Have we created an environment and systems to get the best out of our females or are we content with training everyone similarly and hoping for better results? Have we factored in the differences in the physical and emotional development of females, or are we satisfied to just have them chase the fastest males?
This writer by no means has the solution as he has coached the sum total of zero swimmers. However, the statistics do not lie. It took TTO female swimmer 20 years to surpass the achievement of Siobhan Cropper who was the fastest female in the sport. Cherelle Thompson surpassed the expectations of non-believers and became the fastest female 50m freestyler in the long and short course pools. After being based in the USA, it was local coaches who came together and helped her to achieve that success.
What national analysis has been done to see what ingredients contributed to this to achieve this success and what mechanisms are in place for other females to achieve and surpass same?
The Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) in January 2017 under the leadership of its president Brian Lewis launched “The Future is Female” initiative. The project aim was to ensure “Equal opportunity for women and girls; equal chances to succeed at all levels of sport. To encourage and empower increased participation of women and girls in sport and physical activity not only as athletes, but also coaches, sports medicine and sport science providers, administrators, leaders, and sports media.”
Despite all the initiatives of TTOC, have we as a fraternity put in an iota of work to contribute to this? In addition to declining athletic performance, from a coaching perspective, swimming clubs, both competitive and learn to swim, have difficulty in accessing female swim coaches.
Is there not value in creating a balance on the deck by developing and encouraging more female coaching participation? Can having competent female coaching representation on the deck inspire female charges to greater success?
If we want better from our female athletes, celebrating women on a day is not enough. ASATT must broach this tender topic so that we can assist our female swimmers to optimise their performances.
ASATT must also seek out to develop competent female coaches and embrace if women happen to outshine the male species. What is unacceptable is if ASATT remains as a meet management organisation and a team selection committee, instead of a national governing body which analyses our strengths and weaknesses so that we can truly and holistically develop our sport.