Two weeks after winning the body fitness category at the National Senior Bodybuilding Championships, T’chelle Harris is considering an early retirement. Citing a lack of support, the 34-year-old is uncertain about how much longer she can dig into her own pockets to meet the demands of her sport.
“The week of a competition can cost me up to $10,000,” she revealed to the Sunday Guardian this week. “You spend all this money and time preparing, but after you win you feel like, ‘what’s next?’ It’s been eating up my savings for five years now and I think I’ve reached a point where I can do no more.”
Excelling in a “minor” sport, Harris sits well below athletes in football, cricket and track and field in the pecking order for funding from the Ministry of Sports. She said her lone visit there had left her feeling disillusioned with her prospects.
“They were very dismissive and said there were other people to see about. It was a big demotivator where I started to question what I had been doing for all these years. Have I wasted my time? That’s the way I feel; like all these things I’ve done, I have nothing to show for it apart from a few pictures and trophies.”
Harris began competing in body fitness in 2011 and within a year had won her category at both the National Junior Championships and the Sportsworld Classic, which she has taken a further three times. She enjoyed success around the Caribbean last year, winning the Wesley Barrow Invitational in Antigua, the St Lucia Invitational, the St Martin Invitational and, most notably, the CAC Championships in the Bahamas.
“I cannot say I’ve ever got help from anybody,” she said looking back. “For the years I’ve been competing, I’ve funded myself to bring myself to the structure that I am. I have invested in myself, from my training, my travel, my food. Everything I do for myself… My friends think I’m crazy to spend all this money without getting anything in return, but you do it for the love of the sport.”
Despite her frustrations, the resident of Sangre Grande said it would be difficult to turn her back on body fitness as it had been the driving force in her life.
A member of the CLX Gym in El Dorado she explains: “It has given me a sense of purpose and a goal. If I don’t have these competitions, if I don’t have the gym to go to on an evening, I don’t know what I’d be doing with myself. I don’t really party. I’m more of a homebody. Competing is what I look forward to and it’s helped with my confidence, my self esteem and has contributed to me being a more all round person.”
As she prepares to defend her CAC title, she reckons the event may prove to be her last hurrah.
“From where I sit, it’s not looking bright. If a young person asked me about this sport, I’d tell them you end up spending all your money on it to reach to a certain level. Why would you want to do that?”
