Amelia Rajack: A 12-year-old with eyes on the Olympics

AMELIA Rajack is five months away from the start of her teenage journey, yet the dynamic, multi-talented national athlete already boasts an incredible list of achievements, not least of which are the three highest accolades in three separate sporting disciplines in her age group.

Rajack reigned at the last National Age Group Long Course Championships, the Maracas Open Water 1km swim, and the TT Triathlon Federation’s duathlon Under-13 champion, representing her school Holy Faith Convent, Couva.

Added to that, the first form student is already growing accustomed to winning on the regional front, coming off a haul of medals at the recently concluded Carifta Aquatic Championships in Barbados, including her first individual gold medal for TT at the meet in the girls 11-12 200m butterfly final.

“It felt great to win the 200m butterfly because it was my first Carifta gold medal,” Rajack said in an interview with Newsday. “I wanted to make my country proud. And I did that. It was great.”

The 200m butterfly gold was one of two top honours she achieved at Carifta.

Competing in the 11-12 division, Rajack was also part of the relay team which won the 4x500m freestyle. She also won a silver medal in the 200m freestyle, as well as three bronze medals: 100m freestyle, 400m freestyle and 4x100m freestyle relay.

Rajack made her Carifta debut in Jamaica last year, competing in the same 11-12 age division, in which she set the pace for success with two silver medals in the 4x50m and 4x100m freestyle relays.

At such a tender age, Rajack still remembers getting in the pool for the first time.

“I started learning how to swim at three years old and started competing at around seven,” Rajack said.

Asked what kept her driven to train in the early formative years, Rajack replied: “(What kept me motivated) was that when I trained, I trained hard with a goal in mind. I always wanted to get faster, so that when I go to meets, I would qualify for the (national) teams and win medals and trophies.

She has one eye on the journey and the other on the destination – university and the Olympics – like her favourite athlete, multiple-record-breaking American swimmer, Katie Ledecky, who is the first and only female swimmer to win five gold medals at the Olympic Games.

Still 12 years old, Rajack does things people unaccustomed to balancing competitive swimming and schoolwork may not fully comprehend.

“It’s not seasonal. I train whole year, about six days a week. I’m an active person,” she said.

“When I’m not doing anything, I feel uncomfortable. I must have something to do all the time.”

She has also excelled in the books, moving smoothly through the Secondary Entrance Exam en route to Holy Faith Convent.

“I like mathematics but my favourite subject would have to be integrated science,” Rajack said.

“I want to get a scholarship to get to university to swim. I also want to make an Olympics and when I retire, I’d also swim for leisure.

Although she has achieved in the open water, winning her age group in the national event, she prefers racing in the pool.

“I think I’m more confident competing in the pool. I’m kind of afraid of the fishes, and the stuff (underneath) in the open water,” she said laughing, although inadvertently admitting that might work to her advantage. “When I see them, I swim really fast, because it can get scary.”

Apart from her successes at the past two Carifta Games, she impressed at back-to-back editions of the Goodwill Games – winning two medals at the XXI Goodwill Games in Trinidad (2015) and the XXIII Goodwill Games in Guyana (2017).

As a back to back age group winner at the TT Triathlon Federation Duathlon (2017 and 2018), Rajack’s sporting talent is all the more evident. She said she intends to pursue the two sports and open water swimming, all the same.

Rajack said the successes thus far in her journey were made possible through her parents’s support, guidance her coaches, her friends and God.