Clay­ton Clarke

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

Sole and Sanaa Fred­er­ick are part of T&T’s 17-mem­ber con­tin­gent at the Paris Olympics which got un­der­way on Fri­day.

The 18-year-old twin sis­ters sprint­ed on­to the women’s 4x100m re­lay team af­ter fin­ish­ing sec­ond and fourth re­spec­tive­ly at the NGC Na­tion­al Ju­nior and Se­nior Track and Field Cham­pi­onships at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um on June 29.

They are the youngest of the sev­en women (six in track and field and one in swim­ming) rep­re­sent­ing T&T in Paris. How­ev­er, they are no strangers to na­tion­al du­ty as they first donned the na­tion­al colours at the Carif­ta Games in the Ba­hamas last year.

Sanaa won the Girls un­der-20 200m and was third in the 100m. The sib­lings then helped T&T to sil­ver in the 4x100m and 4x400m re­lays.

In ad­di­tion, Sanaa se­cured sil­ver with the women’s 4x100m team at the Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean Games in El Sal­vador and was third in the Girls 100m fi­nals at the Com­mon­wealth Youth Games host­ed at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um.

In the mixed 4x100m, the sis­ters helped T&T to bronze.

At this year’s Carif­ta Games in Grena­da Sole cap­tured sil­ver in the Girls un­der 200m, then teamed up with Sanaa and land­ed an­oth­er sil­ver in 4x100m, while Sanaa earned sil­ver in the 4x400m.

The twins, who at­tend Druid Hills High School in Geor­gia in the Unit­ed States, still have not got­ten over the ex­cite­ment of qual­i­fy­ing for the Olympic Games, the biggest glob­al sports event.

“I was in dis­be­lief, but al­so very ex­cit­ed. It hasn’t re­al­ly hit me yet, but I feel like once I get to Paris it will def­i­nite­ly hit me,” Sanaa said in an in­ter­view be­fore the Olympics.

“I feel great to make the Olympic team at 18 years old, one of the youngest. This is my biggest ac­com­plish­ment in my ca­reer so far.”

She de­scribed get­ting the call con­firm­ing her se­lec­tion from the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) as com­fort­ing.

“It was def­i­nite­ly a big re­lief, but I am al­so very ex­cit­ed to rep­re­sent Trinidad and To­ba­go in such big games. Mak­ing the team at such a young age is such a bless­ing but know­ing that I am this young and mak­ing the Olympic team makes me ex­cit­ed about mak­ing fu­ture Olympic and ma­jor teams,” she said.

Sole ad­mit­ted that when she took up track and field in 2021 the Olympics were not on her mind.

“I start­ed run­ning track three years ago and nev­er thought I would be in the po­si­tion I am in to­day, not even with just mak­ing the Olympic team but every­thing else I have ac­com­plished this sea­son.”

The Olympics came in­to the pic­ture for Sanaa af­ter her coach­es, fa­ther Pe­ter Fred­er­ick and Jami­al Roles, con­vinced her to try for a spot on the T&T team.

She re­called: “At the be­gin­ning of this year my coach­es def­i­nite­ly had mak­ing the Olympic team in the plan for the sea­son. I de­cid­ed I want­ed to be­cause I re­al­ized that my coach­es had faith in me that I could make it.”

Sole and Sanaa are the first twins to rep­re­sent T&T at the Olympics. Sole said she is hap­py to share that spe­cial ex­pe­ri­ence with her iden­ti­cal twin.

“It feels great to have my sis­ter by my side while we both our ful­fill­ing our dreams to­geth­er. She has been there for me through all the good and bad and I would not want any­one else by my side to sup­port me phys­i­cal­ly and men­tal­ly like she has,” she said.

Sanaa is elat­ed: “ It is very spe­cial to have my sis­ter with me. The Olympics is def­i­nite­ly a spe­cial and new ex­pe­ri­ence for me so I’m glad to al­ways have her by my side.

“She has been a good sup­port for me, es­pe­cial­ly be­cause at times track can get men­tal­ly hard but know­ing that I al­ways have her by my side and some­one that I can talk to that un­der­stands how I’m feel­ing is def­i­nite­ly a bless­ing.”

The young­sters are out to give their best to help T&T ad­vance from the women’s 4x100m heats on Au­gust 8 in­to the fi­nals on Au­gust 9. Sole’s goal “is to give it my all and do my part no mat­ter what the cir­cum­stances are. And of course, to make it to the fi­nals and po­ten­tial­ly get a medal.” Sanaa has sim­i­lar am­bi­tions. “My goal for the Olympics this year is to give 100% on the re­lay and to hope­ful­ly medal in the 4x1.”

The teens train at the Run­nah Elite Track Club in At­lanta, Geor­gia, and say they ap­pre­ci­ate the sup­port of all the peo­ple who con­tributed to mak­ing their Olympic dream pos­si­ble.

“I want to thank my team­mates and coach­es for keep­ing my head on straight through­out prac­tice, track meets and even with things out­side of track,” Sole said.

“Most im­por­tant­ly I want to give cred­it to the Lord him­self for giv­ing me the mind­set and abil­i­ty to give my all every time I step on track and help me move for­ward even when times get rough.”

Ath­let­ic skills run in the fam­i­ly. The twin’s fa­ther, Pe­ter, is a for­mer na­tion­al sprint­er who reached the semi­fi­nals in the men’s 60m at the 2001 World In­door Track and Field Cham­pi­onships in Lis­bon, Por­tu­gal. The Bon Air Gar­dens res­i­dent al­so won the na­tion­al men’s 200m ti­tle in 1998.

His girls are grate­ful for the fam­i­ly in­put, with Sole stat­ing that “fam­i­ly plays a big role in sup­port­ing me with my ca­reer phys­i­cal­ly and men­tal­ly and fi­nan­cial­ly. I wouldn’t be here with­out them and their sup­port.”

Sanaa added: “The sup­port from my loved ones is im­por­tant in my ath­let­ic ca­reer be­cause it mo­ti­vates me to keep go­ing and know­ing that they be­lieve in me helps me be­lieve that I can ac­com­plish any­thing.”