One of Cayman’s most promising track-and-field stars is hanging up his competitive spikes, claiming he can no longer afford to fund his Olympic dreams amid a financing row with government and athletics officials.
Alex Pascal, 28, the island’s national record holder in javelin and a gold medallist at the junior Pan Am Games in 2017, claims he has not received enough support from the Cayman Islands Athletic Association.
He was released from government’s elite athlete programme, which provided him with an annual stipend after an injury-hit season in 2019.
Now he says his attempts at a comeback have been thwarted by sports administrators who won’t provide even basic funding for a coach or to attend international meets.
Throughout his career, Pascal said he has had to dig into his own funds, including buying his own javelins and funding his own coach.
He was once one of the island’s most promising young athletes, dominating at the University of Missouri and collecting medals for Cayman at international competitions. But he feels neglected and unsupported by the sport’s administrators and argues that all Cayman athletes face an uphill battle to make the most of their potential on the world stage.
“I have not had a coach since I’ve become a senior athlete,” he said, adding that he had been forced to pay his way to attend international meets while working to support himself.
Pascal, who has now quit the sport in frustration, believes many Cayman athletes are in the same boat. Once they move on from junior programmes and college careers, he says they are left to flounder without appropriate resources or access to elite competition locally.
“I would say 95% of the senior athletes feel the same way but everyone is scared to talk because… there’s so much politics involved and they feel like they are going to get blacklisted, or cut off of certain teams.”
Funding own training
Pascal said he was speaking out, now that he has retired prematurely, in the hope that it can make a difference for others.
His challenges come despite being one of the most successful Caymanian track-and-field athletes of his generation.
Pascal, who won silver for Cayman at the 2018 CAC Championships, had identified a coach in Grenada to assist him with preparation for major meets at that time, paying him US$800 every month out of his own pocket. But he says he can no longer afford it.
“As an adult, I have living expenses,” he said. “I have kids now and it’s hard doing this without being able to get a stipend or any kind of money towards the sport when you’re trying to give it your all.”
He said professional athletes shouldn’t have to work a nine-to-five job while trying to compete at an elite level.
“It’s hard for me to go to work, finish at five, come out here and train and then when I have to go away and compete, I have to pay out of my own pocket.
“My friends Keshorn Walcott from Trinidad and Tobago, Olympic gold medallist, and Anderson Peters, Grenada world champion, they don’t have to work, their job is javelin. They wake up in the morning, and train in the afternoon.”
However, Pascal noted since 2019, when he was cut from the elite programme, he has not “received a dollar in funding for anything”.
Sports minister: No requests from Pascal
In January, Sports Minister Bernie Bush said that he will be changing the elite programme for athletes so they only receive a lump sum depending on the nature of the event and how they perform, noting that on an annual salary they “had no incentives to do anything because they were collecting money whether they worked hard or not”.
Bush, speaking to the Compass this month about Pascal, he said he was aware of the athlete’s setbacks but added he had not received a request for financial assistance.
“The last time I saw him he was riding a motorcycle and he broke his foot; this was two, three years back,” Bush said. “I knew he wasn’t getting the assistance that he craved from other organisations but since I’ve been there, I have [had] nothing on my desk from Mr. Pascal.”
Bush recognised Pascal’s accomplishments for the Islands and said he hopes he stays involved in the sport as a coach.
“He was a pretty good athlete in his time, and I don’t know if he’s discouraged but I do hope now, if he has laid up his javelin, that he coaches some of the younger ones because Mr. Pascal is a very decent young man.”
Commonwealth Games
Pascal, who competed for Cayman in the Commonwealth Games in 2018, was not selected by the CIAA for the event in Birmingham last year.
While he did not meet the qualifying criteria in javelin, he believes he would have had a better chance than many of those selected of making it, through the heats and possibly getting on the podium.
No Cayman Islands athlete made the qualifying criteria for the event, but the rules allow the island’s track-and-field officials to select a team to take part.
Pascal believes his experience and track record should have made him a prime contender.
He criticised the CIAA and Cayman Islands Olympic Committee for sending junior athletes, who aren’t ready to compete at that level.
“Don’t send someone at 16 and 17 years old for exposure; you don’t send an athlete to the Commonwealth Games for exposure. That is one of the biggest events in track and field. You don’t pay that much money to send young athletes to go and have fun.”
He added that it’s embarrassing for Cayman to often place 20th out of 20 athletes at major meets.
“When I go away, I go over to compete, to give my best and because I know I have a shot at the finals every single time.”
CIAA defends selection process
The CIAA says its selection process is transparent and fair to the extent possible, and no athlete is preferred, or preferentially provided benefits over another. The likelihood of medalling is not part of the criteria.
“It should be noted that the prospect of reaching the podium is not a factor when criteria are set and it is somewhat presumptuous on the athlete’s [Pascal’s] part as the nature of the sport is not one where such predictions can be made,” CIAA stated.
“Standards are either set by international bodies or the Association Selection Commission based on stipulated guidelines. Track and field observers know the challenges faced if criteria are not scrupulously followed. All federations face the same difficulties in selecting an individual to compete, but the underlying factor that must be observed relates to performance based on the criteria set.”
Equipment and funding
Despite being a multiple medal winner and Cayman record holder, Pascal said he was informed he would have to break his own record to get back in the elite athlete programme after his injury lay-off.
“They told me that I needed to break my personal best, but they won’t be giving me a coach and they won’t be giving me any funding; it’s like asking me to get an A on [my] exam but… not giving me a teacher or any books – how is that possible,” Pascal said.
He noted that he requested simple equipment from the athletic association over the past three years such “javelin balls, weighted balls, exercise balls, medicine balls”, which would assist him in his preparation for international events, but they failed to deliver.
Pascal said he personally purchased six javelins worth nearly $10,000.
“Each javelin cost $1,300. We don’t have equipment for elite level athletes, especially in the throw events. We have equipment that’s suitable for junior athletes.”
He said the association’s current equipment caters only to junior athletes, like their “$300 javelins” that could only travel at a distance less than his national record of 75.38 metres.
The CIAA told the Compass, “The Association caters with equal fervor to both junior and senior athletes. The fact that we have more junior athletes than senior athletes may give the false impression that the former is catered for more than the latter, but this is a fallacy.”
Competing on his own
Despite his many setbacks, including the COVID-19 pandemic which saw Pascal compete only twice locally between 2020 and 2021, he continued to train with the hope of meeting the demands set by the association.
“Training was going amazing,” he said. “It was the best that I’ve ever felt in my entire career, the javelins were going far but at the same time I was stuck here in Cayman… competing by myself.
“If I continue to compete against myself, I would never be able to push myself the way I would competing against other athletes.”
In fact, Pascal told the Compass that he requested help on multiple occasions, but nothing ever materialised.
“Just last year I asked for a plane ticket to go to Jamaica,” he said, noting that the request was denied. “It’s so discouraging that I have to beg my own country to compete for my own country.”
Lack of communication?
The Compass was provided with emails and messages between Pascal and Cayman Olympian Cydonie Mothersill who now serves as CIAA general secretary. Pascal believes there was insufficient communication at a time when the request was urgent.
The two parties went back and forth between May and July of 2022 on a request for US$480 that would assist in paying for accommodation for a trip to Grenada in June, where Pascal would train and compete alongside his coach.
“That would’ve given me a chance to qualify for the World Championships, and the Commonwealth Games,” he said. “When I reached out to the Olympic Committee, they told me that I have to go through the association first.”
Ultimately, Pascal and the CIAA did not come to terms on the request. The CIAA said this was because his request came with little notice and Pascal had not competed in enough local meets.
“The Athletic Association received a funding request from the athlete on Thursday, May 19, 2022, to attend an international track and field meet ten [business] days later on June 4, 2022. The matter was brought to the Executive for discussion and approval. Three business days later, on Wednesday, May 25, 2022, the request was submitted to the relevant organization. Once the request was submitted, additional information was requested of the athlete by the said organization; this information was sought and obtained from a third party and the athlete and submitted.
“It is only reasonable that those wishing to make national teams or seeking financial assistance to attend competition should make themselves aware of the requirements and, at the same time, make their request known in sufficient time so that the federation can reasonably consider and process the application.”
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