{"id":3341,"date":"2020-02-03T21:20:44","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T21:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=3341"},"modified":"2020-02-03T21:20:47","modified_gmt":"2020-02-03T21:20:47","slug":"celebrating-alia-atkinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=3341","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Alia Atkinson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rashaun Stewart – Contributor<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At age 16, Alia\nAtkinson competed in her first Olympics in Athens, Greece in the year 2004. She\nhas competed in every Olympics since. In Doha, at the 2014 Short Course World\nChampionships, Atkinson tied the world record for the 100-meter breaststroke\nand secured the gold. In the process, she became the first black woman in\nhistory to win a world title in swimming and earned Jamaica\u2019s first gold\nswimming medal in the World Championships. These accomplishments are merely a\nsummary of the prolific accolades that Atkinson has accumulated<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atkinson\u2019s track record is highly distinguished. In August\n2015, she competed at the Long Course World Championships. Her performance\nshattered Jamaica\u2019s national record in the semi-final of the 100-metre\nbreaststroke and she went on to place third in the final. She secured silver in\nthe 50-metre breaststroke, finishing 0.06 seconds behind the winner. In the\n2018 World Cup, she broke the 50-metre breaststroke world record. That same\nyear, she went on to win both the 50-metre breaststroke and the 100-metre\nbreaststroke at the Short Course World Championships. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the twenty-one events recognized by the Amateur Swimming\nAssociation of Jamaica, Atkinson holds the record for twelve events. She has\nalso secured 26 medals during her tenure as a professional swimmer, with 12\ngold, 10 silver and 4 bronze medals. Four of the gold medals are from Short\nCourse World Championships, with the remainder from the Central American and\nCaribbean Games. Four of her silver medals are similarly from the Short Course\nWorld Championships, one is from the Long Course World Championships, two from\nthe Commonwealth Games, two from the Pan American Games and the final silver\nfrom the Central American and Caribbean Games. Atkinson won two bronze medals\nin the Short Course World Championships, one from the Long Course World\nChampionships and another from the Commonwealth Games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SWIMMING HALL OF FAME<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this prodigious track record, the Olympics represent\nthe only competition where Atkinson has competed and failed to secure a medal.\nTo that end, her goal is to become the first Jamaican swimmer to secure a medal\nat the Olympics. As an athlete with her level of skill, she has the talent in\nspades and the drive to accomplish this goal. Thus far, she has been named the\nJamaican Sportswoman of the Year thrice, in 2014, 2017 and 2018, respectively,\nas well as receiving the Order of Distinction in the Rank of Commander for\noutstanding representation of Jamaica in the field of swimming in 2018. She\nserved as Jamaica\u2019s flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the 2007 Pan\nAmerican Games and the 2018 Commonwealth Games. She was named the 2014 and 2016\nFemale Central American and Caribbean Swimmer of the Year in Swimswam.com’s\nSwammy Awards. Finally, she has been inducted into the International Swimming\nHall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a nation, it is of utmost importance that we take the\nrequisite time to celebrate Atkinson\u2019s feats. She has stamped her class\nconclusively in a demanding sport and she continues to represent Jamaica\nproudly on the world stage. Athletes of her caliber are a rarity and she\ncorrespondingly must be celebrated. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rashaun Stewart – Contributor At age 16, Alia Atkinson competed in her first Olympics in Athens, Greece in the year 2004. She has competed in every Olympics since. In Doha, at the 2014 Short Course World Championships, Atkinson tied the world record for the 100-meter breaststroke and secured the gold. In the process, she became […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1748],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-contributors-2"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3343,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341\/revisions\/3343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}