Grange proud of Atkinson

Kingston, August 9, 2016 – Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, says the nation can be proud of swimmer Alia Atkinson who competed in the 100m Breaststroke at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil yesterday (Monday) evening.

Minister Grange said:

“Alia represented Jamaica well. She didn’t get the result that she wanted last night and we share her disappointment. But we must let her know how very proud we are of her. Alia is a two-time olympic swimming finalist — no one else in our country has achieved that. So we have every reason to be proud of her.

Alia is a world class athlete and she will continue to represent Jamaica with distinction. Let us continue to support her and the entire #TeamJamaica in Rio.”

Atkinson finished 8th in the Breaststroke final won by the American Lilly King in a new Olympic record time of 1:0

Commentary

We too laud Alia Atkinson on being a finalist in the Rio 2016 Olympics. We hope she will not make her disappointment not to medal set her back. We think she has a bright future.

This does not mean that we glorify mediocrity. We at Vision aim for the stars and will accept nothing less.

We do not have the training facilities of the many other competitors, so from that stand point we have done excellently for our size and resources.

Many we grow from strength to strength as the games progress.

Commentary by Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie, who is Senior International Correspondent & photojournalist for Vision Newspaper Canada.

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