Alia almost gave up on Tokyo Olympics dream

The postponement of the Tokyo Olympics because of the coronavirus pandemic was difficult news to take for champion swimmer Alia Atkinson, who at one point had doubts about competing at the Games now rescheduled for July 2021.

The 31-year-old shared her experience during Thursday's Zoom panel discussion, hosted by the Olympians Association of Jamaica (OAJ) under the theme 'Outlasting the Outbreak: Keeping your Competitive Edge During the Pandemic'.

Atkinson, who qualified for her fifth Olympic Games last August, said that she was on the verge of retirement in 2016 before discussions with members of her team and inner self-reflection led her to continue. However, the outbreak of the virus in March forced the International Olympic Association to postpone the Games until next year.

Questions

The move has caused Atkinson to question if she wants to stick around for the revised schedule of the Tokyo Games.

"Before I even realised [it], it was 2020. So I said, all right, make it through eight months, you can put in the work, put in the mindset, and you can finish it off. So when I heard this, a little depression hit because I didn't know how to feel," she said. "Because I was pushing through with optimism, but when I really felt it, it was more like a low. Like, what am I supposed to do now? Can I make it another year and a half?"

Having competed in her first Olympics in 2004, Atkinson has amassed more than a decade of experience. Acknowledging the sacrifice necessary to compete, she said that she had to determine for herself the reasons for competing. The answer she found was the realisation of aspirations that she still wanted to achieve.

"I pushed through for so long already, that's a long time of waking up in the morning and getting into a pool. So I really had to sit back down and think about what was the reason why we do this. And I think [when] I went back into it, there are goals that I hadn't accomplished yet," she said. "So I think that was my mindset and it took me a while to get there, but it was basically having my goals and sticking through it, no matter the obstacles or the challenges I had."