I am writing in response to the article by Ms Joyann Clarke entitled Oba Off The Mark published in the August 19 edition of the SUNDAY SUN.
In that article, Ms Clarke makes several statements about my character and behaviour during my time as a representative of Barbados in athletics aggressively, but inaccurately, portraying me as a person who does not take personal responsibility for my failures, who is a very angry, prima donna (in this case, a vain or undisciplined person who finds it difficult to work under direction or as part of a team), and who has taken much from but given little to my country.
Actually, many of her allegations in her latest article were made in an earlier one, dated March 12, 2006, to which I responded on April 12, 2006. Readers may find it useful to consult those articles since I cannot repeat all of my responses from that occasion.
This response promises to be a very lengthy one since I will go into much more detail than previously, not simply to explain my own situation but also to make young athletes and the wider public aware of how the athletic world operates and the challenges that they may experience sometime in their careers.
I will reinforce what I write by the inclusion of several pieces of documentary evidence, some of which I have been reluctant to reveal publicly.
In this article, I would also like to provide some important background information about my history as a national representative because Ms Clarke’s article inaccurately or incompletely paints a picture of me, my athletic career, and the business of top-level international athletics.
My intention is not to create controversy, but to illuminate some of the challenges that I faced in my path to achieving some measure of success in [the hope [of advancing] the larger and more important discussion about how can we improve sports in our country.
Health factors that constrained my achievements
I will begin with my physical circumstances since this was at the core of most of my achievements, or lack thereof, and since Ms Clarke always seems to omit them when writing her articles about me.
From the age of four years, I have been affected, and often afflicted, by asthma which laid me low at critical stages of my career, sent me frequently to the doctors, and forced me to request a special Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) from the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) to use Ventolin and Pulmicort inhalers to assist me to breathe more easily. I made the IAAF aware of my condition for the first time in 1993.
In 2004, apparently because a number of athletes were asking for permission to use these substances, IAAF required me to submit the results of a medical test simulating an actual asthma attack.
Professor Timothy Roach carried out this test in Barbados (see his letter to IAAF attached). He reported to my mother that I reacted instantly to the test in a way that was dangerous to my health and my life. He also stated that he would not do such a test again. The results of that test were valid until 2008, so that I did not have to undergo another test.
However, my parents and I had agreed that I should give up athletics rather than take another one. During my athletic career, my lungs never functioned optimally.
In sprint events, which are measured in fractions of a second, this condition could play a significant role in an athlete’s training and performance at meets.
Yet, I never used this factor as a crutch. I was even part of a documentary that was filmed in Barbados for the 2001 World Asthma Day, highlighting the fact that asthmatics could still achieve great things if we stayed on top of our condition.
The second important health factor that played a major role in my performance was the chronic injuries from which I suffered from my early teens and which became exacerbated as the years went by.
Unfortunately, there was no year from 1994 to the end of my career that I was not affected, to a major or minor extent, by this circumstance.
For instance, I sustained an injury to my back in May 1994, although I was unaware of its seriousness until my poor performance at the World Junior Championships (WJC) a few months later caused me to undergo an x-ray at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
The report on the injury stated that I had sustained an “undisplaced crack fracture through the spinous process of C7”.
However, I was advised by the doctor that substantial healing had taken place, it was “touch and go”, but he would leave it up to me and the athletics authorities about whether I should participate in the Commonwealth Games in Canada in a few weeks’ time. I elected to go, but only to run in the 100 metres.
It was not my wisest decision, for although I reached the semi-finals, I exacerbated the situation. When I returned to my academic institution, the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), the medical officials there noticed that my spine had accumulated inflammation and recommended that I rest from all training activities for several weeks, which is what I did. (I mention these factors to explain my modest performance at those championships/games, in view of Ms Clarke’s comments about the gold medals that I should have won at those levels. I shall deal with the Commonwealth Games in 1998 later on in this article.)
As intimated above, my injuries continued after 1994, mainly to my hamstrings, back, and groin. I sustained two injuries (one to my left adductor and the other to my right hamstring) in the semi-finals of the 100 metres and 200 metres respectively, of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships in May 1996.
This put me out of that meet. Earlier, in March of that year, I had won the 200 metres in the NCAA Indoor Championships, becoming the first Barbadian to win an individual NCAA Division I title, which I achieved while breaking the legendary Michael Johnson’s collegiate record.
Then in April, I had run a wind-aided 9.69 seconds in the 100 metres, the fastest 100 metres time in history under any conditions, and a feat which lasted until 2008. I was in terrific form before my injuries, but now I had to battle for fitness to compete in the Atlanta Olympics, which were due to begin within eight weeks.
Bob Kitchens, my college coach, who was always aware of my intense desire to represent my country, knew how tough it was for me to watch my Olympic dream crash and suggested that I return home for a few days during that emotional time.
I did, and for the next two weeks or so, I went to see Dr Jacqueline “Jackie” King-Mowatt twice every day for therapy. Her care for me, and later work by David Morin, my main physiotherapist at UTEP, prepared me sufficiently to compete in those Olympics, but with very little training since the time of my injuries.
It is perhaps well known that I made the semi-finals of the 100 metres and the finals of the 200 metres, becoming the first Barbadian to reach an individual Olympic final in athletics (as distinct from swimming, a feat that belonged to Leah Martindale, who had placed fifth in the 50-metres event at the same Olympics the previous day).
The following year, 1997, was a good one for me, until June of that year. I had won three of the four NCAA short-sprint titles – the 200 metres indoors, and the 100 metres and 200 metres outdoors. My time of 20.03 seconds, under rainy conditions and against a 1.4 wind, was computed by some individuals as translating into 19.8 seconds under more favourable conditions.
Track And Field News, widely regarded as the premier athletics magazine in the world, predicted that I would win the silver medal at the upcoming World Championships a few months later. Until that time, no other Barbadian athlete had been ranked in the top ten or predicted to finish in the top eight at a World Championships or Olympic Games event.
After major championships, especially during which one competes in multiple events, it is not uncommon for coaches to give an athlete from ten days to two weeks off hard training or competition so that the athlete’s mind and body could recover properly. Competing too soon can risk serious injury.
As I remember it, the Barbados National Championships were due to take place on the weekend following the NCAA Championships and, understandably, coach Kitchens, my parents, and I were very concerned about my health, in light of our ultimate and reachable goal of medalling at the World Championships two months later.
Coach Kitchens asked my local association to allow me to stay in the US with him in order to monitor my recovery and training in preparation for that event. That request was denied and so I came home to run at National Championships.
I suffered a hamstring injury in the semi-finals of the 200 metres event because, among other factors, the programme was running some two hours behind schedule, I had warmed up and gotten cold again, and the track was the old, dead one about which I and several other athletes had complained on several occasions.
It must be understood that a warm up is critical to an athlete’s performance and health, more so when participating in an event involving top speed and explosion, such as sprinting (I shall speak more on this matter later). The risk of injury increases greatly when that athlete does not know when his or her event will start and has to improvise continually.
Performing (perhaps I should say “improvising’) another a warm up because of a two-hour delay with sketchy details on the actual start time for an event is a great formula for poor performances and injury.
I withdrew from the finals, for which I was criticized by a number of individuals. I went on to the World Championships a few months later and never reproduced anything near the form that I had demonstrated in the NCAA Championships. I placed sixth in the finals, with a modest time of 20.37 seconds. Ato Boldon won the event in a time of 20.04 seconds.
• Obadele Thompson is Barbados’ first individual Olympic medallist, winning a bronze medal in the men’s 100 metres at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Part 2 will appear in the SUNDAY SUN.
