Dr Sherece Ben­skin

The Caribbean’s sport his­to­ry is quite rich, and track and field specif­i­cal­ly has been a bea­con, ac­count­ing for al­most all Olympic medals in the re­gion. In some coun­tries, track and field com­pe­ti­tions are in­tro­duced ear­ly, with na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions start­ing as ear­ly as the pri­ma­ry school lev­el (En­trance age 5/6 years, de­pend­ing on the coun­try).

These com­pe­ti­tions at pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary school lev­els aid tal­ent iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and de­vel­op­ment. These meets are viewed and sup­port­ed by present and past stu­dents alike. The sta­di­ums are full, and the games are broad­cast on lo­cal tele­vi­sion na­tion­wide. The In­ter-Sec­ondary School’s As­so­ci­a­tion (IS­SA) Boys and Girls Cham­pi­onship in Ja­maica is one of the largest, with thou­sands of com­peti­tors and an in­ter­na­tion­al au­di­ence, in­clud­ing scouts from Amer­i­can col­leges seek­ing new tal­ent.

The re­sult of this sol­id sport­ing cul­ture is high­light­ed at the ju­nior lev­el, where Caribbean ath­letes fre­quent­ly ex­cel at games such as World Youth and Pan Amer­i­can Ju­niors. How­ev­er, there ap­pears to be a dis­con­nect be­tween ju­nior and se­nior ath­let­ic ex­cel­lence in the Caribbean re­gion.

Qual­i­ta­tive re­search by Can­dice Thomas, Tim­o­thy Cham­bers, Lu­a­na Main, and Paul Gastin in 2021 found that the poor tran­si­tion from ju­nior elite to the se­nior lev­el is mul­ti-fac­to­r­i­al. Four main themes emerged in their work: in­ad­e­quate sup­port, com­mit­ment, pres­sure, com­pe­ti­tion, and bat­tle with in­juries.

In­ad­e­quate sup­port in­clud­ed fi­nan­cial, so­cial, and sport ecosys­tem. The lack of fi­nan­cial sup­port be­comes a de­cid­ing fac­tor for some ju­nior ath­letes when they de­cide to pur­sue pro­fes­sion­al sports or a steady aca­d­e­m­ic ca­reer path. Per­sons at this tran­si­tion point are bal­anc­ing the chal­lenges of mov­ing from be­ing fi­nan­cial­ly de­pen­dent on their par­ents to fi­nan­cial in­de­pen­dence or con­tribut­ing to the house­hold fi­nan­cial­ly. Those with­out fi­nan­cial sup­port at this piv­otal point may choose not to con­tin­ue along the ath­let­ic path­way. Min­i­mal fi­nan­cial sup­port is avail­able in the re­gion for the post-sec­ondary pur­suit of com­pet­i­tive sport.

The poor sport ecosys­tem speaks to prob­lems with or­gan­i­sa­tion and ad­min­is­tra­tion, in­fra­struc­ture, trans­paren­cy, lack of ath­lete de­vel­op­ment path­ways, and con­flicts. They re­port­ed that ath­letes voiced a lack of sup­port from par­ents, friends, and in­sti­tu­tions, af­fect­ing their de­ci­sion to dis­con­tin­ue track and field.

The con­flict be­tween aca­d­e­m­ic, per­son­al, and train­ing de­mands can lead to with­draw­al from sports. These young ath­letes must jug­gle the pres­sure to per­form aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly while still train­ing and com­pet­ing in en­vi­ron­ments that are of­ten un­sup­port­ive and for lit­tle or no fi­nan­cial gain. This harsh re­al­i­ty of­ten leads to with­draw­al from sport. For some, the high lev­el of com­pe­ti­tion be­comes too over­whelm­ing amid all the oth­er pres­sures be­ing faced, and for oth­ers, in­jury is the de­cid­ing fac­tor to stop.

Sports in­jury is a re­al­i­ty that all ath­letes must deal with. When the ad­di­tion­al bill of in­jury re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion is added, the sit­u­a­tion can ap­pear daunt­ing for some. In the Caribbean, ju­nior ath­letes, in­clud­ing ju­nior elite ath­letes, of­ten par­tic­i­pate in mul­ti­ple sports for their schools. These ath­letes are at in­creased risk of in­jury and burnout. Sub-op­ti­mal med­ical treat­ment for an in­jury in­creas­es the risk of re­cur­rence. Ther­a­py for re­peat­ed in­jury or pro­longed re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion for an old in­jury is not al­ways pos­si­ble for some ath­letes.

Fi­nan­cial sup­port is need­ed to help these ath­letes pre­vent and treat these in­juries and pro­vide the nec­es­sary guid­ance to pre­pare them for the lifestyle change that oc­curs when they move from ju­nior to se­nior elite ath­letes. With the ap­pro­pri­ate sup­port sys­tem, some ath­letes may avoid the pres­sure of be­ing an elite ju­nior ath­lete and de­cide not to con­tin­ue at the se­nior lev­el.

Our Caribbean ju­nior ath­letes re­quire more sup­port from fam­i­ly, friends, and med­ical pro­fes­sion­als to cope with the pres­sure as­so­ci­at­ed with be­ing elite ju­nior ath­letes. More fi­nan­cial sup­port is need­ed for our ath­letes dur­ing this tran­si­tion pe­ri­od. More op­tions should be avail­able to them to make the ath­let­ic path­way a fea­si­ble op­tion at a time when they are al­so ex­pect­ed to be­come fi­nan­cial­ly in­de­pen­dent.

Elite ju­nior ath­letes bat­tling with in­juries need ad­di­tion­al sup­port. Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion for sports in­juries re­quires mul­ti­ple ses­sions with phys­io­ther­a­pists, sports doc­tors, and sports psy­chol­o­gists. The process can be­come cost­ly and re­quire sub­stan­tial so­cial and fi­nan­cial sup­port. There is a need for more or­gan­i­sa­tions that can give this nec­es­sary sup­port to our ju­nior elite ath­letes. There is a need for both gov­ern­ment and pri­vate sec­tors to col­lab­o­rate for bet­ter re­sults. Sports or­gan­i­sa­tions must look close­ly at their or­gan­i­sa­tion, ad­min­is­tra­tion, and man­age­ment and re­flect on whether their poli­cies and pro­ce­dures for sus­tain­able long-term ath­lete de­vel­op­ment, if any ex­ist, will fa­cil­i­tate a larg­er pool of ath­letes tran­si­tion­ing from ju­nior to se­nior elite ath­letes. Ad­dress­ing is­sues with the sport ecosys­tem is es­sen­tial for our re­gion.

Dr Sherece Ben­skin is a med­ical doc­tor pur­su­ing the MSc Sports Med­i­cine in the Fac­ul­ty of Sport, UWI.