Four-time Olympian Alia Atkinson said having her family present made Friday’s induction into the Texas A&M Lettermen's Association's Hall of Fame Class of 2019 made the occasion even more special.
The Texas A&M Lettermen's Association's Hall of Fame Class of 2019 honoured 10 lettermen representing a cross-section of sports with great individual efforts and team successes at the university’s annual Burgess Banquet.
During her four years at Texas A&M where she earned her Bachelors Degree in Psychology, Atkinson received 19 All-American Honours, the fourth-best in school history.
The 2010 NCAA Champion in the 200-yard breaststroke, Atkinson was a three-time Big 12 Champion in the 100 breaststroke (2007, 2008, 2010) and in the 200 breaststroke (2007, 2008, and 2010). She also garnered Big 12 Champion titles in the 400 Medley Relay (2007 & 2008), 200 Medley Relay (2008), and the 200 Free Relay (2010).
She also set the 100-metre breaststroke (SCM) world record in 2014, while winning the race at the Short Course World Championships in Doha, while becoming the first black woman to win a world swimming title.
Atkinson, who is preparing for the next leg of the FINA World Cup, in October, said it meant a lot to have been able to share the occasion with the people closest to her including her father and mother Tweedsmuir and Sharon as well as her sister Sannica St. Cyr.
“I was really grateful a lot of my family members could make it, especially my two uncles, Karl ‘Laddy’ Smith and Ronald ‘Senior Laddy’ Smith. Karl, who represented Jamaica in the 400m hurdles at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, attended the University of Texas, a rival school.”
“He was a real Aggie towards the end of my swimming career so it was really cool he could come out and support,” she said.
“My mother’s older brother, Ronald, he would never come to my meets because he was always really busy so it was cool that he could come out and be there as well.
“He would watch on TV and he would videotape all my races so he was there in spirit and I could feel his support so it was cool he could actually be physically have been there.”
Atkinson’s college roommate Maria Summer Hartstein, her academic advisor Chris Barttelbort, and her college coach Steve Bultman, were also all able to share the special occasion with her.
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Chinese swimmer Sun gets rare public CAS hearing
Sun Yang will receive the rare public hearing he requested when the World Anti-Doping Agency challenges a decision not to punish the Chinese swimmer for his behaviour towards drug testers.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Tuesday that the case involving Sun had been postponed beyond its anticipated September date, citing unexpected personal circumstances involving one of the parties.
Lausanne-based CAS said the hearing was now unlikely to begin until November at the earliest, with Sun granted his wish for the hearing to be held in the open, the first case at the court to take place under those circumstances for 20 years.
WADA has questioned a decision by swimming's global governing body FINA not to punish Sun over allegations stemming from a visit to his home by out-of-competition testers in September 2018.
The 27-year-old, who served a three-month ban for a doping offence in 2014, denies all wrongdoing relating to the 2018 claims.
CAS said on Tuesday: "At the parties' request, the hearing, which will likely take place in Switzerland, will be open to the public (including the media)."
Its statement added: "This will be the second time in the history of CAS that a hearing is held in public. The first public hearing, which took place in 1999, was also related to the sport of swimming, in the matter Michelle Smith De Bruin v FINA."
Rival swimmers Duncan Scott and Mack Horton refused to stand on a podium with Sun at the World Aquatics Championships in Gwangju in July, when Sun won gold in the 200 metres and 400m freestyle.
Horton and Scott were warned about their actions by FINA, which also rebuked Sun after he launched an angry tirade at Scott in which he appeared to call him "a loser".
Alia Atkinson wins two more gold medals on FINA World Cup Tour
With three gold medals already in the bag from the Japan and China legs of the 2019 FINA World Cup Tour, Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson added a couple more at the Singapore leg this past weekend.
Atkinson opens World Cup tour with 50m breaststroke gold
Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson took the gold medal in her pet event, the 50m breaststroke at the opening leg of the FINA World Cup in Tokyo, Japan on Tuesday.
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