Taylor-ed for success

Olympic triple jump gold medallist Christian Taylor yesterday listed giving up Crop Over as one of the many sacrifices which he had to make to achieve some of his goals in athletics.
Addressing close to 200 students at the Princess Margaret Secondary School in St Philip, Taylor indicated that one of his major goals was success at the World Championships and the Olympics, and, although his yearly trips to Barbados continued, he had to give up taking part in Crop Over activities to stick to his training regime.
“When you set goals you have to make sacrifices, formulate a list and be disciplined if you want to achieve those goals,” Taylor said at the school where his grandmother Gloria Wright gained her secondary education.
“When I attended the World Championships, I was one of the youngest athletes and not many people expected that I would have made it past the first round. 
“However, I have a deep Christian faith and I sought God’s guidance as to whether that was my calling and on the fourth jump I advanced to the finals to take the gold.
“It is faith, sacrifices and discipline which will help you to get where I have gotten since I am no different from all of you who have the potential to live your dreams,” said Taylor.
The triple jumper said that one of the early sacrifices which he had to make was to give up football which he had played all of his life and which his friends were playing. 
“I also had to give up some of those friends since some of those friends were doing things that would not lead me in the right direction.
“You have to consider the pros and cons of your actions so that you would be conscious of who or what would help you to achieve your goals or distract you from those goals. Having the discipline of setting and sticking to small goals to attain your bigger goals is critical,” Taylor added.
With a receptive audience including Barbados’ first Olympic medallist, Jim Wedderburn, Taylor said that he had brought his World and Olympic medals to show the students that dreams could be realized and made real even for individuals from a small nation like Barbados.
Along with Princess Margaret, Taylor also made a visit yesterday to The Lodge School, where Wedderburn was once a student.