media_artricles :: 2016

STOP ATHLETE ABUSE

Masters champ Mark-Baird takes stand

Six-time World Masters Track and Field Championship gold medallist, Marsha Mark-Baird has lashed out against sports officials here in Trinidad and Tobago for what she describes as athlete abuse.

"I'd like to fight for the rights of athletes," she told the Express. "We've been mistreated and sometimes abused by those in power. There are too many people in sporting associations who are there to gain for themselves. It's about the athlete and always about the athlete. If you're benefiting more than the athlete you're supposed to be serving, you're no longer serving them. You're only serving yourself."

Mark-Baird said there were examples of the abuse she is referring to at the 2015 and 2016 National Championship meets.

"I was sickened by the way officials spoke to athletes, as if they were stray dogs on the streets. There's no respect for athletes, and it has gotten worse. I thought it was a cultural thing when I was a teenager. Now, I see it's a form of disrespect and abuse.

"Every single track and field athlete, coach or parent," she continued, "knows exactly what I'm talking about. It's about time we take a stand and do something. Coaches, stand up for your athletes. Athletes, stand up for yourselves."

US-based Mark-Baird is determined to play her part in the development of track and field in T&T.

"I plan on being an ambassador to help athletes in Trinidad and Tobago. Last year, I gave out cards to all the coaches I knew as a way for them or their athletes to contact me if they needed help with athletic scholarships abroad. I also did that this year."

Mark-Baird is a two-time Olympian. She represented the country at the Sydney Games in 2000, and again at the 2004 Athens Games. In Athens, the Point Fortin athlete earned 5,962 points in the heptathlon. Twelve years later, that score is still the national record.

"The heptathlon is not a hard event. We have plenty of talent in Trinidad and Tobago, and I know somewhere out there we will have another Olympian in the heptathlon. Girls, ladies, dream big and stick to your game plan."

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