Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.

Arima to Athens: Olympic alternate brings experience home to Memphis

Keenan Gibson watched as her world changed in the blink of an eye. She closed her eyes as a Memphis track star and opened them as an Olympian on her way to Athens, Greece.

"It's every athletes dream," said Gibson.

That dream grew up in Arima, a city on the island of Trinidad, the much larger brother of Tobago, about 30 miles east of Venezuela.

Trinidad, discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1498, is home to 1.3 million people and 23 Olympians, including Gibson.

Athletically, Gibson's forte is the 100, 200-meter dashes and the 4x100-meter relay.

Her talents have been evident ever since The University of Memphis took interest in Gibson during the Carifta Games, a track competition for young Caribbean athletes, years ago.

Gibson was 22 when she joined The University of Memphis women's track team.

Gibson could only compete for three years, according to the NCAA.

But what a three years it was.

As a freshman in 2001, Gibson set a school record 60-meter dash time of 7.60 seconds. She would set the 200-meter dash record later.

Moreover, in her senior season Gibson propelled herself into the annals of Memphis track by finishing first in the 200-meter dash and second in the 100-meter dash at the 2003 Conference USA Track and Field Championships. Gibson also became the first female Tiger to qualify for the NCAA Championships since 1985.

Gibson couldn't get past the semi-finals in either the 100 or 200-meter dashes, but she was the 10th fastest woman in collegiate track and field.

"It was the best way to end her career," Memphis track coach Brenda Cash went on to say soon after the meets.

Career over? Not a chance. Besides, the story can't end like this.

Gibson's track career hadn't even reached its summit.

Then home came calling.

Trinidad and Tobago needed a 4x100-meter relay team and Gibson impressed them enough to get the nod.

It was a strong finish at the Pan American games that sealed her position on the Trinidad and Tobago national team.

"We [broke] a national record that stood for 19 years," said Gibson.

The record time was good enough to qualify them for the Olympics, but the team had to wait it out.

A late July deadline, when the official word would determine the 16 teams headed to Athens, was when they would know.

But the fantastic times from numerous events were almost for not.

Gibson heard that the United Kingdom would run the Sunday before the deadline to try and qualify for the Games and grab the 16th spot away from Gibson's team.

The U.K. dropped the baton and their chance for qualifying with it.

For Gibson, the difference between a summer in Memphis and a summer in Athens was a blink of an eye.

It was her first Olympic Games participation, but Gibson is a veteran Olympic Games watcher and when asked if the games on television do them justice, she replied with an emphatic "No!"

However, it wasn't as euphoric as most would expect.

"We left the [Olympic] Village at probably 6 p.m. to go to the opening ceremonies, which had already started, but when we reached the stadium we found out that they were letting in the teams according to the Greek alphabet and we didn't know where we would be," Gibson said.

"We were in the last group of three and so we watched the entire opening ceremony on the big screen. We heard noise, but we could only watch it on the big screen."

They finally made it in, just ahead of the Grecians.

"We saw the national flag of Trinidad and Tobago up in the sky and we started to wave. It was really nice," Gibson said.

With their only event 13 days away from the lighting of the torch, Gibson and her teammates stayed together in the Olympic Village, which Gibson says was surprisingly boring.

"My friends who were at the other Olympics, in Sydney, they were saying it was like this or like that and at this Olympics ... I was expecting a little more in the village. We didn't go out of the village much and in the village itself they didn't have much to do."

What did she do to past the time?

Gibson mingled with other athletes, took pictures with other track stars and watched foreign weight lifters clash in the dining room.

"We saw a fight with two little weight lifters and we were like 'who is fighting' and when we left and passed them they were shorter than me," laughed Gibson.

However, Gibson wasn't laughing about her hip. A nagging injury received well before the Games jeopardized her chances of running, but treatment by the Olympic doctors to helped.

Gibson's role on team, if she had competed, would have been the lead leg in the 4x100 relay.

"She's great off the blocks and runs a tight curve," said Cash.

But what if she couldn't get the blocks?

Was winning everything?

"Not actually winning, but just to represent the country because it's actually been 40 years since (Trinidad and Tobago) had a 4x100 team in the Olympics," said Gibson of the honor to run for her home country.

Finally, the day came to see if the United States would dominate the field as expected.

The Trinidadians were in heat two.

But Gibson, possibly on account of her hip injury, could not run.

"I'm surprised she didn't start it," said Cash.

Maybe she should have. An illegal baton exchange disqualified the team in the preliminary heats.

"We didn't even make it across the finish line," Gibson said.

After the Olympics, Gibson returned home with memories of the Games, ready to teach budding track stars at Memphis the proper technique to make the most of their speed.

And in the blink of an eye, you may see one of Gibson's disciples at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.


Similar Posts