ALTHOUGH not considered contenders in their events, swim legend Alia Atkinson is urging Jamaicans to support Sabrina Lyn and Josh Kirlew at the Paris Olympics as they continue the island’s legacy in the sport.

Atkinson, who retired in 2021, competed at a historic five Olympic games for Jamaica and made the final of the 100m breaststroke in 2012 and 2016, just outside of a podium finish.

The 35-year-old, who will be attending the summer Games in France, will get to witness 20-year-old Lyn compete in the women’s 50m freestyle, and British-based Kirlew line up in the 100m men’s butterfly.

Neither met the Olympic ‘A’ or ‘B’ standards but still qualified for the Games through universality, which permits a country to send one male and one female swimmer to the Olympics.

It means they’re not expected to challenge for medals in their respective events but Atkinson says their journeys should still be respected due to the challenges they faced to qualify.

“Swimming is very individual and, for the most part, everybody is alone and trying to fight their own fight by themselves,” Atkinson told the Jamaica Observer. “Anybody looking at Sabina and Josh, I want you to look not at their performance or their placement but the strength and the fight they had to reach where they’ve reached. It’s not the same, and you can’t compare other sports to swimming. Where we are compared to other sports, we’re very much behind in terms of development, coaching skills, travel, and so on.

“Jamaicans love sports and we love the fight so I would say look at swimming as another fight — yes, in the water — but also to reach every single place that you reach. It’s extremely difficult for aquatics in Jamaica and the Caribbean so just support them. And when they finally reach where they want to reach you’ll feel even better because you supported them when it was rough, so you feel like you reach too.”

World record holder Atkinson made her debut at the Olympics as a 15-year-old in 2004, competing in the women’s 50m freestyle. Lyn makes her Olympic debut in the same event and Atkinson says she’s been impressed with her more-aggressive mindset.

“The weakness I’ve seen in her in the past is: When does she start engaging, attack, and say, ‘It’s all or nothing’ ? [But] I think I saw [less of that weakness] in The Bahamas National meet when she knew it was her last chance [to qualify] and she broke out and dropped a second to get her personal best.

“It’s like the 100m in track and field and you see somebody can’t break 10 seconds and suddenly they do a 9.5, that’s too big of a drop! So you can see that when her mentality started to switch it’s all or nothing right now [for her], and I think with more challenges like that she’ll be able to grow.”

Atkinson says Lyn’s and Kirlew’s preparation heading into their competition needs to be thorough to ensure they perform as best as possible.

“The beauty and curse of their events is it’s very quick, so everything has to meticulous — everything has to be on point,” she said. “For them, you’re going to have more of the mental visualisations, so sitting down outside the water and thinking about your race, how you want to execute it, and then breaking down the race into little parts — working on the dives, working on the streamlines, working on the breakout strokes — and just basically you’re creating neural pathways in your brain to create that memory of that perfect swim so when it’s time to swim, it’s like second nature.”

Atkinson also wants them to use the pressure, or lack thereof, to their advantage.

“Let’s be honest, all eyes were on track and field so Alia was just doing the pre-show,” she said. “So I used that as non-stresser: just do what I can and then we can build on that. But I could see how that could be different for somebody else who would maybe like the pressure.

“I think as an athlete, once you mature in the sport you’re going to know your strengths and weaknesses and what really pushes and motivates, and you use that. If you like the pressure, use it, but if not it’s very easy to be like, ‘I’m here to do my best, here to represent, put Jamaica on the map, and continue this path of continuity for the next athletes to come,’ and that will be less pressure.”