Women’s sport: Chardaé Richardson – Saint Martin’s athletics hopeful
As part of its series of portraits dedicated to female athletes from Saint Martin, produced to mark the initiatives to promote women’s sport led by the Territorial Olympic Committee of Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin (CTOS SBSM), we went to meet Chardaé Richardson. For this young athlete, athletics is much more than just a passion: it is a way of life.
At just 15 years old, Chardaé Richardson has already found her calling. Ever since she discovered athletics at the age of 6, alongside her father, she has never imagined herself playing any other sport. It’s a passion that runs in the family: her father is a coach and her older sister, now a student and athlete in the United States, is the one who inspired her to take to the track.
Whilst the long jump is her favourite event, it is in the 1,000 metres that the young athlete from Saint Martin has made her mark most so far. The latest evidence of this is her second place at the Guadeloupe Minimes Championships on 21 June, just one second behind Kenya Sharpless of the Avenir Sportif Club de Saint-Martin. On the same day, she also won her heat in the 120-metre final (16.48 seconds), a performance made all the more remarkable given that she was in the middle of her exams. For several weeks, she would get up at 4 am every morning to revise before heading off to train.
Meticulous organisation
To successfully balance her partly Dutch-language schooling with her sporting ambitions, Chardaé leaves nothing to chance. Her greatest ally is a timetable where everything is planned down to the minute. This level of organisation is essential for managing five training sessions a week, spread over five-week cycles of varying intensity, followed by a week of recovery. Her sessions at the Albéric Richards Stadium in Sandy Ground alternate between short sprints, middle-distance running, long sprints, strength training and technical work. Before a competition, she makes a point of getting more sleep, drinking plenty of water and, above all, preparing mentally by visualising what she will do during the event. For her, the most important quality in an athlete is discipline. It is a value that athletics has instilled in her and which she applies both on the track and in her daily life.
Potential that everyone agrees on
Chardaé benefits from exceptional coaching. As well as her father, she is coached by Calvin Bryan, the iconic Speedy Plus coach who, at 82, continues to pass on his passion. In his view, the young athlete has the potential to reach the very highest level, particularly in the 400 metres and 800 metres, where her speed and middle-distance running skills could make all the difference.
Next year, she will compete in the junior category with very specific goals: to beat her personal bests, achieve her best long jump and continue to improve. Her role model is none other than the American Sydney McLaughlin, whose career she admires.
For Chardaé, being a girl in athletics has never been an obstacle. Her message is, in fact, straightforward: “If you really love sport, go for it and never give up.”
Chardaé Richardson impresses as much with her talent as with her maturity. A disciplined, determined young athlete who is already looking to the future, she could well fly the flag for Saint Martin in the years to come.
