Andwuelle Wright is preparing for his Olympic debut in Tokyo, Japan, next year.
Had everything gone to plan, Wright would have competed in the Tokyo 2020 men's long jump final, yesterday. The Covid-19 pandemic, however, forced the Games to be postponed by one year. Wright, the national record holder at
8.25 metres, is not daunted by the setback, and is staying the course on the Road to Tokyo.
Wright's positive outlook during these challenging times has a lot to do with the work of Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SporTT) sports psychologist Amanda Johnson. Attached to SporTT's Elite Development and Performance Unit (EDPU), Johnson is part of the Wright Team, which also includes coach Wendell Williams, the 1993 Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games men's long jump champion.
"Shout out to Amanda, his psychologist," said Williams. "She's doing an awesome job with him. Other than that, he has an awesome team. His two managers, Dexter Voisin and his brother Al Wright, myself, Dr Anyl Gopeesingh, his massage therapist Clint McKenzie, his psychologist. Team is important. I realised that early o'clock as a professional athlete outside."
Williams was speaking during the latest edition of the new online series, "Athlete Talks". Wright and Williams were guests on the show, which was hosted by retired national athlete Jamaal James and 2013 men's 400 metres hurdles world champion Jehue Gordon.
Williams and Wright are very close. Wright resides with Williams and his wife Anja at their Chaguanas home.
"I spent six months by my coach when I went up to Germany," said Williams. "I never liked reaching home from training to talk about what went wrong, and my coach did that a lot. So I give Andwuelle his space. I like to talk to him when we're in the car, heading to training or coming from training. Sometimes, I would look at his mood and leave him alone. But now, Andwuelle has matured."
Wright appreciates the bond he shares with Williams.
"At first it was just a coach-athlete relationship," Wright explained, "but now it has developed into a father-son relationship, and that's the best part of having him as a coach. We can talk to each other about anything. At first, it was just him sending workouts for me because I was in Tobago. When I came to Trinidad to live, he actually took me to stay by him and we've just been building ever since."
Wright's father, calypsonian Henson Wright (Calypso Prince) died last year, while his mother, Janice Adams-Wright passed away in 2014.
"My mother is the most inspirational person in my life," said Andwuelle. "She was an accountant, and I wanted to be just like her. She started the ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), but never finished because of all her children and all the sacrifices she had to make. Growing up, I never wanted to be a professional athlete. My dream was to be an accountant."
Wright has not given up on his dream, balancing life as a pro athlete with highly demanding ACCA studies. When his schedule gets challenging, the Puma-sponsored jumper finds the motivation to keep going.
"Just knowing that I have to go out and do it because I have so many people looking to me from the outside, young kids wanting to be long jumpers. Just knowing that anything I do could have an impact on the decisions that they make. That motivates me. My mom also; when I get up in the morning to head out, I'm motivated to go harder every day in training."
The next episode of "Athlete Talks", featuring quadruple Olympic medallist and world champion Ato Boldon, is scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday), from 8pm, at www.zoom.us (ID: 880 6427 8915). James and reigning Commonwealth Games men's 200m champion Jereem "The Dream" Richards will co-host the show.
