A BIT CONFUSING 
, BUT ANYWAY…
By DENEZ JONES, NG Sports Reporter
At the age of 30, Tonique Williams-Darling is already a 15-year veteran in the sport of athletics, and is having thoughts of starting a family soon. However, family life for Williams-Darling and her husband Dennis will have to wait until after the Pan American Games, the Senior Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Championships and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships next year, and also the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
“I don’t feel like I am declining, in terms of my ability. I feel like right now, I am probably still peaking, and still able to give world class performances, but you know… it’s not really the age thing, I think what it has more to do with is the longevity thing, and how long I have been in the sport. I have been running since I was 15, and training hard since I was about 15, and so, whenever I start to think about how long I’ve been in this; I think athletes realize that there are other things that they want to do. Well, you know… I want to start a family and I want to be a little bit more at home, and stuff like that,” Darling said during a phone conversation yesterday.
Darling was answering the question of whether or not she would consider retiring from competition after the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. She was also asked if maybe this year was an indication that the younger athletes were starting to catch up to her. According to the St. John’s College graduate, bad scheduling was the main factor in her drop from the number one spot to number seven in the world. In order for a track athlete to stay competitive at a world class level, their training isn’t the only factor in their performance. Choosing the right meets at the right time also plays a role in how well someone performs on the track. An athlete doesn’t want to peak too soon, or too late. Darling admitted though, that it was a small combination of things outside of track and field, like having to deal with the responsibilities of her newly acquired celebrity status, that posed a few challenges.
“I’ve had a lot of things going on outside of track and field, but at the same time there were some things going on in terms of scheduling, in terms of minor injuries, and that kind of stuff,” Darling pointed out. “For instance, I did not plan on running indoors, and so when I started my training I started preparing to open up later. Well, that meant my schedule got changed, and I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to be doing. I think this was the first mistake,” she pointed out.
Darling also said that she had only planned to peak once during the outdoor season, so running indoors prolonged the year, which resulted in her “burning out” when she should’ve been peaking. Most track athletes don’t care to run fast times at the beginning of the outdoor season, that’s why you may see a few participating in events they normally wouldn’t. For instance, women’s 100 metre national record holder Chandra Strurrup competed in a few 400 metre events early last year to get that last bit of endurance work in. As the season progressed, she went back to her specialty, just in time for her body to re-adjust to the shorter distance.
“I think ideally, had I known that I was going to those indoor meets, that I should have planned for two peaks. I should have planned for a peak at the Commonwealth Games, and then another peak toward the end of the year, but, you know… sometimes you’re not just making decisions based on medals or placing. Sometimes you need to make a financial decision because, actually, this is our job. Even though I was not able to come out with the gold medal, I made a financial decision. Hey, it’s not a gold medal, but at least I made some money - so that was one of the things early-on that affected my season. The second thing is, I had prepared for certain meets, and I was not able to compete in those meets because I had some things going on. It was like when I wanted to come out, I couldn’t come out, and when I could come out, I decided not to come out. You know - it was just those kinds of things, and it played with my season,” Darling further explained.