That is Cathal Dennehy’s second piece on the World Indoors. He’ll ship another story for the World Indoor Glasgow 2024 Championships.
Thea LaFond provides Domenica its first medal on the World Indoors Glasgow 2024!
by Catha Dennehy
As she stood within the combined zone after the ladies’s triple leap remaining in Glasgow on Sunday, Thea LaFond was draped within the flag of Dominica, beaming with delight.
A medal. Ultimately. A gold medal.
Dominica had by no means gained one of many colours on the World Indoors. The tiny Caribbean island nation, with a inhabitants of simply 72,000, had simply loved its most important athletics victory.
“I’m actually proud to have accomplished what I did,” she mentioned. I’m so proud to be from this small, stunning nation, this highly effective nation. I actually hope right now was an inspiration that introduced pleasure to my individuals. It will in all probability hit at 2 a.m., and I’ll find yourself sobbing in my pajamas, however till then, all I can say is how grateful I’m to signify Dominica.”
LaFond was born in Dominica and lived there till age six, when her household moved to the USA, initially settling in New Jersey earlier than relocating to Silver Spring, Maryland. Her begin in athletics happened curiously, along with her mom telling her in her first yr of highschool that she couldn’t go straight dwelling after faculty and to search out an exercise. LaFond’s pals did observe and subject and satisfied her to hitch them.
“And I’m the final one doing it,” she laughs.
Till that time, she’d primarily been a dancer. LaFond was classically educated from the age of six, doing ballet, ta,p, and jazz, however little did she know the way nicely these expertise would stand to her when it got here to the triple leap.
“All of it performed into physique consciousness,” she says. Once you spend 4 or 5 hours in entrance of a mirror with an teacher telling you exactly the way to repair one thing very technical, you be taught to face criticism and make these small, refined modifications. I feel these tumbled into observe and subject.”
LaFond additionally performed volleyball early in highschool, which lasted only one semester. “After freshman yr, my volleyball coaches have been like, ‘I feel you need to stick to observe, there’s one thing particular there.’”
They have been proper.
LaFond gained a horde of state titles in highschool throughout a variety of occasions and, at 16, Jamaican power and conditioning coach Chris Paul urged she ought to signify Dominica internationally. The next yr, she lined out of their colours on the 2011 World U18 Championships within the excessive and triple jumps. She then enrolled on the College of Maryland and competed on the World U20 Championships in 2012, ending nineteenth within the triple leap.
Heading into 2016, an Olympic yr, her coach satisfied her to give attention to the triple leap, which paid dividends. LaFond jumped a PB of 13.61m indoors that yr. She grew to become an Olympian in Rio, although a hamstring concern on the build-up left her nicely off her finest, leaping 12.82m.
“I instructed myself I might do higher, to provide a greater illustration,” she mentioned. “That’s what fuelled me. I wished to get higher, be on a podium, and put us on a map.”
After that, she made a training change, linking up with Aaron Gadson, who lives in her hometown and continues to be her coach right now. LaFond started to flourish within the following years, extending her PB to 14.20m in 2017, however she underperformed on the 2017 World Championships followinganemiaa. She bounced again in 2018 to win a Commonwealth Video games bronze—a primary medal for Dominica—which she referred to as an “superb finish to an incredible journey.”
However her story was simply starting.
In 2019, she was a late withdrawal from the Doha World Championships because of harm, however two years later, in Tokyo, she shlepped a nationwide document of 14.60m to succeed in the Olympic remaining, the place she completed twelfth. In recent times, she’s come near a world medal – ending fourth on the planet indoor remaining in 2022 and fifth within the final two world out of doors finals. Within the latter occasion in Budapest, she jumped a nationwide document of 14.90m.
The 15-metre barrier was inside attain, and solely in Glasgow – in Sunday morning’s world indoor remaining – did she surpass it. Her second leap didn’t really feel particular, so she screamed in shock when she noticed 15.01m flash up on the clock. “For the primary leap, I needed to chop my step fairly a bit, and Aaron moved me again half a shoe and mentioned, ‘Simply go for it. It doesn’t matter what, be sure you get good foot contact.’ My final leap was superb at Outside Worlds, however I didn’t get full foot contact on my step. I mentioned, ‘Do or die, I’m getting that full foot contact.’ That was the primary change.”
The evening earlier than the ultimate, LaFond watched as Julien Alfred of St Lucia—a neighboring island to Dominica—struck gold within the girls’s 60m, the tiny Caribbean nation’s first-ever medal at World Indoors.
“I’d be mendacity if I mentioned I didn’t cry,” mentioned LaFond. “I messaged Aaron and instructed him, ‘I need this; I don’t wish to disappoint.’ He mentioned, ‘It’s okay, it’s your flip.’ After the introductions, I assumed, ‘Okay, I want a one-two punch for the small Caribbean islands, and Julien was the one. I gotta be the 2.’ I knew St Lucia can be so proud, and I wished that very same feeling for Dominica.”
Her second-round leap gave her gold, with a successful margin of 11cm over Cuba’s Leyanis Pérez Hernández. LaFond is aware of it might pave the best way for others to observe her path.
“I actually really feel the most effective factor I can do for these younger athletes is have moments like this the place they see us on the rostrum, the place they see it’s doable, and likewise to be an individual of reference to get to the following step,” she mentioned.
As she appears forward to the summer time, LaFond mentioned she has a “chip on my shoulder” across the Olympics that she hopes to lastly right in Paris.
“I wish to get a medal for Dominica,” she mentioned. “They by no means gained one, so I hope to be their first—however positively not their final.”
