Tracking Barbados’ Olympic swimming hopefuls

Three of Barbados outstanding male swimmers have their sights set on qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics in Japan.

The race is on for Jack Kirby, Alex Sobers and Luis-Sebastian Weekes to meet the Olympics qualifying standard.

With just 120 days remaining for the biggest sporting event to take place from July 23, 2021, the three are hard at work with hopes of securing their place on the Barbados team.

All three gentlemen have been at the forefront of Barbadian swimming for the last decade and are all facing similar challenges as a result of COVID-19.

The pandemic has brought on many adversities for athletes but Sobers, Kirby and Weekes have no intentions of giving up.

The 22-year-old Sobers is already an Olympian having represented Barbados at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Sobers and Kirby have had more access to training in the water recently than Weekes who has been based in Barbados since the start of the pandemic and whose training has been interrupted for the last six weeks owing to the most recent lockdown on the island.

With no warning of what was around the corner, Jack Kirby had every reason at the end of 2019 to believe that his journey towards the 2020 Olympics was going according to plan. In May 2019 at the Aquatic Center Invitational, Kirby demolished the competition in the 100m backstroke, which included veteran Olympic swimmer Nicky Neckles.

Kirby set a new personal best time of 55:80 and in doing so established a new Barbados age group and national record. Later that year in November, while a freshman at University of South Carolina in Los Angeles, he competed at the Art Adamson Invitational and lowered that time to 55:42.  Then came the pandemic and Kirby was forced to return home.   

Kirby remained there for three months and with no access to a pool, his power and sprint training were set back during this time.  He returned to the US in June and trained in Tennessee and although pool access was still limited, he spent his time working on his fitness and strength in the gym before returning to LA in August and rejoining his team for training as well as attending school as a sophomore under the new online system.

Except for about one month when training was halted as a result of two separate Covid scares among the team, he has been fortunate to be training steadily since October.  It has been an exhausting time trying to make up for the lost time in the pool while at the same time participating in Zoom classes but he has excellent support systems in place and has been making it work.

At the recent PAC-12 2021 Championships in Houston, Texas, he was rewarded for the work put in during the challenging environment of the past year and he posted a personal best in the 200 yd backstroke breaking 1:42:00 for the first time. Next up for Jack is the TYR Pro event in Mission Viejo, California, set for April 8th to 11th.   

On the eastern coast of the United States, Alex Sobers is currently enrolled at Boston College in Massachusetts pursuing his Masters in Sports Administration while at the same time serving as voluntary assistant coach to the Eagles’ swim & dive team.

At the start of the pandemic last year, Alex had to find alternate ways of keeping in shape as pools were closed. So he did home workouts and went jogging on mornings whenever possible.

On July 14th, 2020 he joined coach Michael Stephens in the US where they were using the pool at a country club to get back to some actual swim training.

Similar to Kirby’s experience, the start of Alex’s semester was blighted by the continuing uncertainty and challenges related to COVID. But he feels fortunate that regular communication and guidance from the College helped to alleviate most of the fear related to the unknown. This unwavering support has led him to believe that he can persevere through adversity and face challenges head-on.

At a recent Intra-squad meet on February 12, Sobers gave those following his race to qualify for Tokyo something to get excited about when he posted a personal best in the 200yd freestyle and was only splits off of his personal best in the 500yd freestyle. His performances were also good enough to set two new pool records.

In January Alex went to Florida on a training trip which he found very beneficial and was hoping to travel to Texas April 07-13 for another training trip before beginning his taper back in Boston the week of April 15-22, however with the lifting of the regulation of mask-wearing in Texas, he and his coach have decided out of an abundance of caution to remain in Massachusetts in what they believe is a safer environment.   

Sobers was training at the air force base in Massachusetts and travelled to St. Petersburg, Florida on March 23 where he is competing and hoping to make the Olympic cut. Alex remains very optimistic about his future in swimming and attributes this to having had time during the various restricted periods to look back on his achievements in the sport to date and recognize that the opportunities are endless for someone of his age.

Meanwhile last year in March, Weekes was a sophomore at Kenyon College in Ohio preparing to compete at NCAA’s when COVID-19 struck and the meet was cancelled.

As his classes were switched to the online format, he decided to return home to his family immediately. Amid the continuing uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, Luis opted not to return to Kenyon in September for his junior year but has taken a gap year and is instead focusing on his swimming while also working part-time for C.O. Williams in their quantity surveying department.

With limited access to the pool here, Luis has spent his time working on his fitness and strength in the gym throughout the year and whenever available has taken the opportunity to return to the pool where he is training alongside Nkosi Dunwoody and Christian Kelly but is following his own program.

He is optimistic about the future and prepared to tackle anything which life throws his way and other than the virus itself and its effect on people worldwide, he has chosen not to see the past year as having impacted him negatively.

Instead, he appreciates the opportunity it has given him to spend quality time with his family and do some of the things which he loves but which have been put on the back burner over the years as he focused on his swimming and academics completely.   

As far as a return to competition goes, Weekes is uncertain with all the restrictions in place and difficulty associated with travel, and about what meets or camps he will be able to attend. But he is intent on gauging where he is at in his training by participating in any local competition and time trials. (PR/ML)