Since winning gold at the 2022 FINA World Swimming Championships, Jordan Crooks has experienced support from a wide variety of people, and you can now add Olympian and world record holder Alia Atkinson to that list.
Atkinson recently visited Grand Cayman for the inaugural PanAm Aquatics Open Water Series, where she spoke to the Compass about several topics, including Crooks, whose achievements she praised. She noted that Crooks’ performance in Melbourne put not just Cayman but the entire Caribbean on the sports map.
“It was fantastic,” Atkinson said. “I was in Australia when he won and it wasn’t just Cayman getting that top spot, but it was Trinidad coming third. Out of the entire world, two Caribbean countries were the top three in the fastest event known to man – it’s like the 100 metre sprint for track.”
Atkinson, who became the first Afro-Jamaican to win a world title in swimming, said seeing Crooks and Trinidad and Tobago’s Dylan Carter prevail on the podium was a dream come true.
“I really wanted to see the Caribbean have a push,” she said. “For me, it wasn’t about Jamaica having a push, it was about the Caribbean. So, if I excel, hopefully more people will be enticed.”
Atkinson has collected 12 medals in five World Championships, as well as 124 medals in seven FINA Swimming World Cups, 74 of which were gold.
She is also the current 100-metre breaststroke world record holder with a time of 1:02.36, and only the second Jamaican swimmer to place in the top four at the Olympic Games.
While Crooks doesn’t boast a resume like Atkinson, he has accomplished more than any Caymanian swimmer before him, at only 20 years of age.
Atkinson said Crooks is the “best” swimmer the island has ever seen, adding that his trajectory, no doubt, is leading him to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
“I’ve watched Cayman for the past two decades,” she said. “We’ve had the Fraser brothers and numerous swimmers from here. The Fraser brothers were fantastic, but there is a big gap between the Fraser brothers and Jordan. Hopefully, we can have more people continue the cycle.”
Growing aquatics locally
Atkinson said, in order to continue the cycle, more swimmers must get involved. She alluded to the Aquatic Centre which will feature a 50-metre pool, saying once it is constructed, international bodies like PanAm Aquatics will capitalise on hosting events in Cayman.
“We can extend a 25-metre pool to a 50-metre pool – a 25-metre pool is great but it is also limited,” she said. “In the future, we can have more opportunities to come back and put more things in the calendar for Cayman.
“CARIFTA here would be fantastic. More people will be in the stands, more competition, we could engage the public more, and that will excite these children.”
With more major events being held locally, Atkinson believes, ultimately, that will inspire more people to get involved.
“It would allow them to say there is a future, it is cool to be a swimmer, and when we start to do that, we are going to see a lot of them stay and keep the interest and not fall off at 18… or after college is finished. We want them to continue to make progress in the sport, which is how we’re going to build champions.”
She said her hope is that more Caribbean people start swimming competitively.
“In the Caribbean,” she said, “we love track and field, we love football, we love netball and cricket, but how can we get a little bit of love for swimming?
“I think having two males on top of the world for the Caribbean [in swimming], I think we’ll create more leaders, which is what we need in the Caribbean, and then Cayman will definitely see the difference in the sport.”
She added that Crooks’ younger sibling Jillian is one to keep an eye on.
“I’ll be the first to say it, watch out for his little sister,” she said. “We all look at the first one and say ‘Oh my gosh’ but it’s the second one that comes and says ‘All right, it’s time to explode’ because she has plans to go bigger.”
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