Shafiqua gets much-needed support.
Over the past several years, one of this country’s leading athletes, Shafiqua Maloney, has been communicating her plight in so far as being able to access the funding she needs to continue her path towards making a full career as an 800m athlete in the international community.
Shafiqua has spent much time communicating through a variety of media sources, the fact that she needs a significant amount of funding if she is to attain the standards associated with being a professional athlete in the contemporary global athletics environment.
Now, happily, the news is that some commercial enterprises have agreed to come to her assistance. This comes in the wake of Prime Minister Gonsalves’ commitment to assist her going forward.
All Vincentians must feel a sense of relief that Shafiqua is perhaps receiving an appropriate response to her persistent appeals for support.
Backdrop
Shafiqua has been a bright athletics prospect for many years. After being under the watchful eyes of Coach Michael Ollivierre for some time, he assisted her with a move to St Kitts and Nevis where she had the benefit of further coaching with Jenice Daley, while also attending school. She ran the 200m and 400m then.
Her sojourn in St Kitts and Nevis was not all smooth sailing but she soldiered on enough to earn an athletics scholarship to the Southern Illinois University where she studied and ran track for two years before receiving another scholarship, but to the University of Arkansas.
As an athlete with the Arkansas Razorbacks, Shafiqua distinguished herself in the 400m and 800m and was a fixture on the 4 x 400m relay team.
Shafiqua made the Vincentian team to the Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan, in 2021.
During her career at Arkansas, there were occasions when she featured, for a few weeks, amongst the world’s leading athletes but unfortunately, has not taken hold of these long enough in a season to win medals at the World Championships level.
In 2023, Shafiqua won bronze in the 800m at the Central American and Caribbean Games held in San Salvador, El Salvador, where Handal Roban won gold in the men’s 800m.
Academically, Shafiqua completed her first degree and masters while competing for her school and country.
Upon completing her studies, Shafiqua committed herself to becoming a professional athlete. She knew that there would have been challenges but certainly did not anticipate its magnitude.
Becoming a professional athlete places heavy demands on any athlete. When one comes from a small, country with a small private sector and an open, highly vulnerable economy, overcoming challenges is a major undertaking with highs and lows.
Becoming a professional athlete requires a full spectrum of highly trained and qualified team of technicians and administrators that come with a heavy price tag.
Unfortunately for Shafiqua, her performances, while commendable, have not yet been adequate to attract any of the world’s leading sportswear companies as a personal sponsor. This meant that she would have to procure the funding required to facilitate the sustained pursuit of her athletics ambitions.
The professional route
This Columnist has, on several occasions, written on the developments taking place in the ever-expanding world of sport, not just track and field athletics.
Contemporary athletes in track who embark on the journey to professional/elite status, require access to a team that is committed to success. For someone like Shafiqua, this means a professional coach, physiotherapist, sports psychologist, physician, and mentor, to name a few. Professional athletes also need managers as well as agents if they wish to have a complete package.
On average, today’s professional track and field athletes training in the USA or anywhere that is considered good would require approximately $10,000 – $15,000 per month. In the 1990s, some professional track athletes were seeking $40,000 – $50,000 per year to facilitate good coaching on a full-time basis.
In the case of Shafiqua, the financial challenges of a budding professional career came fast and furious. In her very first year, the ask for financial assistance was in the vicinity of $35,000 per athletics season, and that is without the full cost of all the requirements being paid.
Team Athletics St Vincent and the Grenadines (TASVG) receives an annual Grant from World Athletics of $15,000 USD per year. This barely covers the cost of sending a team to the annual Carifta Games. On most occasions, it is not enough, especially considering the cost of Inter Caribbean air travel.
For a period of four years, the organisation received an additional $25,000 USD per year under the Athletics Olympic Dividend, for a total of $100,000. This was used to facilitate the provision of equipment in six zones in St Vincent and the Grenadines and a stock of equipment for national training and competitions. All the athletics equipment available to athletes and coaches at the newly laid synthetic track has been procured by TASVG.
The only other source of funds comes from the St Vincent and the Grenadines Olympic Committee (SVGOC).
TASVG has however attempted to facilitate Shafiqua’s participation in competitions, both amateur and professional, whenever possible.
In respect of the SVGOC, the annual Grant available for national sports associations amounts to approximately $120,000 USD to be available to 17 national sports associations in any given year. Much of the activities undertaken by the SVGOC are underwritten by restricted funds from the International Olympic Committee and Panam Sports, aimed at facilitating the sport development process.
The SVGOC therefore does not have the resources to facilitate the financial ask of Shafiqua and this has been explained to her in detail.
Without financial support from the public and private sector, and without sponsorship from a major sportswear giant, it is impossible for Shafique to be successful in her quest to be a genuine professional track and field athlete.
Where we are now!
It is unfortunate that it took Shafiqua’s most recent expose on Sportsmax, on her current status as a national athlete, to shock Vincentians into an understanding of and appreciation of her plight.
Shafiqua has been appealing for help since completing her studies.
Many appear to have forgotten that last year, 2023, there was a half-page newspaper article that detailed Shafiqua’s plight. In the extensive coverage, several of her WhatsApp messages seeking help from a multiplicity of sources were highlighted.
Unfortunately, Shafiqua’s appeals fell, for the most part, on ‘deaf ears’ some of which have suddenly, in the past few weeks, taken notice, but only as an apparent result of the Sportsmax video that has gone viral.
The sudden interest in assisting Shafiqua runs the risk of being politicised. This need not be the case. In the process of addressing Shafiqua’s plight, those who have supported her in the past, including institutions like the Vincentian Diaspora organisation, individuals who would probably remain nameless, coaches and numerous others who have no desire for publicity, may well go unnoticed. Others may be wrongfully condemned for not having done enough without the detractors taking the time to ask appropriate questions while others do not wish to have an explanation.
There may well be enough blame to share around but what does it matter? For the current period, we need to savour the moment that so many institutions can readily lift their hands and open their coffers to find resources to assist Shafiqua.
As a nation, however, we must always be eager to apply our critical thinking skills and follow the course of history being written.
The time has come for the National Sports Policy to be fully implemented. The first draft of the National Sports Policy for St Vincent and the Grenadines was the work of the National Olympic Committee following a series of consultations with stakeholders across St Vincent and the Grenadines in the 1990s. Since then, the Policy has been reviewed on two occasions since the current political administration came into office.
Writing in 2013 I stated, “Nothing can happen in the realm of physical activity and sport, as is the case with every other aspect of life, without money.
The National Sports Policy states…The financing of sports development in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines shall take a tripartite approach: Government, private sector and National Sports Associations.
“While the foregoing may well have been the intention and it occurs in practice there is no coming together of the three stakeholders at any time to determine what is required let alone what would be made available.
“As things are at present, for national sports associations, the mantra is really, what you see is what you get.
“In most countries, the government is always the single largest contributor to the finances allocated to sport. Most of this funding usually goes in the provision of infrastructure for the different sports practise in the country.
“Where governments are genuinely committed to the sport development process founded upon an understanding of and appreciation for its multidimensional contributions to national wellbeing the provision of infrastructure is done in tandem with the national sports associations. Unfortunately, that is not the case here.
“More often than not sport infrastructure is provided by the government based on politics; the opportunity to capture votes from different communities. It is the reason that so often we have some clumsy spaces designated playing fields.
In some instances, the work is done only when an election comes around”.
Gratitude
Old people say that we must be ever thankful for ‘small mercies’. That is in order in our country as we express gratitude to those institutions and individuals who readily came forward since the Sportsmax revelation of a tragedy and travesty that should have long since been known to the average Vincentian.
Old people also say, ‘Better late than never.’
We congratulate Shafiqua on her courage and outspokenness. She, better than anyone, knows what she has done and what she needs to do.
Success is an achievable objective, but patient understanding is a necessary partner to the hard work and commitment of the athlete.
Gratitude and accountability must be watchwords going forward as she pursues her dream of becoming a genuine professional athlete and an Olympic medallist. The road upon which she must travel is long and arduous.
