ATHLETICS has been a long-time passion for Michelle Alleyne-Pennie. So much so that she would sometimes trek all the way to Port of Spain from Mahaica, Point Fortin for training as a child.
But while she enjoyed competing, she also wished to contribute to sports in different ways - as a coach, technical officiator and administrator.
She now boasts a bachelor's degree in sport for development and master's in sport administration from the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) and is a senior programme co-ordinator at the Sport Company (SporTT), as well as a jumps coach for junior athletes.
'I am a serious advocate for sports for development, and I will do everything in my power for that to work," she told WMN.
She recalled her interest sparking while attending the Point Fortin RC Primary School.
She joined the Point Fortin Civic Centre Jets and started off with running, under the guidance of coach Lawrence St Hillaire.
'I took part in the 200-metre and 400-metre (races), long jump and high jump."
She said she eventually 'boiled down' to just the high jump, in which she held a national record for almost two decades.
"I literally grew up in and spent all my life in sports.'
As most athletes would say, there is a lot of sacrifice that comes with the title.
For her, one of those was the distance she would have to venture at times.
'While I was attending Holy Faith Convent in Penal, I would go to school with my bag, spend the weekend in town (Port of Spain), train at the national stadium (Hasely Crawford Stadium) and head back down Sunday evening to go to school Monday-Thursday and then go training Monday-Thursday at Point Fortin and Civic Centre Jets.'
She recalled falling asleep during the long taxi rides.
'You know when sometimes people have to wake you up and tell you that you reach (your destination)? Yeah.'
As an athlete, she competed in the Carifta Games and other regional meets as well as the World Games.
'At Carifta, I have gold, silver and bronze medals in the long jump. And at all the regional meets, as a junior, I competed in the open categories."
She said at 16, she jumped 1.81m.
"...And when you look at what's going on now in the world, (that) probably takes you to higher-level regional meets as well. So at that age and at that time, that was apparently phenomenal.'
From athlete to advocate
But she stopped competing in her late teens when she realised she wanted to help develop athletes.
'I went into technical officiating in track and field, and then I went into coaching.'
She said part of the inspiration behind this shift in direction came from observing and experiencing the challenges field events and their athletes faced at the time.
'Back in those days, field events really struggled. So I think the attention from maybe the federation at that time really wasn't there.
'Track events, more so the short sprints - that took precedence and they paid more attention to that.
So at times, you got selected to go; you qualified by means of w
