Tanya Lee | Williams raised to overcome

It has been a difficult month for Sharon Simpson, mother of Briana Williams, who now lives with the fact that her daughter had an adverse analytical finding based on medication she had given to her on the day of Jamaica’s National Senior Trials when Williams woke up experiencing flu-like symptoms she got from her mom, who was sick that week.

I sat with Simpson to talk that day. In her own words, Simpson said: “As a mother, my first instinct is always to protect my child. This was the most important day of her track career so far, and I just wanted her to feel better so she could do well for her race later that day. I just hope I haven’t jeopardised her years of hard work”.

Those years of hard work have seen Briana’s rise to stardom across the track and field landscape from as early as 10 years old, where she was number one in her age group in the USA.

As Simpson recalls, it was Williams herself who chose track and field.

“Briana was always hyperactive, even before birth,” Simpson shared. “As a dental hygienist, she used to kick my patients as I conducted my procedures while pregnant. Because of this, as early as three years old, I enrolled her in ballet, tap dancing, and then gymnastics. She even played tennis at age six. When she was eight, Briana and her cousin came to me while I was watching a track and field meet and they said that they wanted to run track. I really never thought about it until she expressed that interest.”

That interest was always in Simpson’s blood. Running was something she did while living in Jamaica before migrating to Florida.

“I did track, hockey, and netball at Wolmer’s,” Simpson said. “My cousin, Dr Dean Weatherly, coaches Cornwall College, and my aunt, Gloria Simpson, played netball for Jamaica, so sports has always been a major part of the Simpson family.”

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Simpson remembers taking her nine-year-old to Miramar Optimist to start track training. When Williams lined up for her first competitive race, she won easily.

“She’s pretty much been winning ever since,” Simpson said, beaming.

And the decision to run for Jamaica, that was Williams’ as well.

“We lived in the US. Her dad was Philadelphia born and raised, she trained in the US, and so my thought was always that she would compete for the USA. But we came to Jamaica to watch Champs in 2012, and Briana fell in love instantly and wanted to run for Jamaica.”

At the 2019 Carifta Games, Williams became the first Jamaican since Usain Bolt in 2004 to earn the Austin Sealy award two years in a row.

Now, she faces the biggest obstacle of her young track and field career.

“This has taught me a lot,” Simpson said of how she is handling it. “I was always very vigilant and have taught her to be the same. My remaining hope is that my actions as a mother aren’t held against her or Ato (Boldon, her coach), who has been like a father to her since she was 10 years old. It would not be fair to them.”

As for Williams, Simpson believes she has shown incredible strength.

“Her name is Briana, which means ‘strong and honourable’ and she has lived up to that. Her father, who died of kidney cancer when Briana was just six, named her that. They were inseparable before he passed”.

After running a national junior 100m record time of 10.94 seconds at the National Senior Trials in July, Williams now awaits the result of her pending anti-doping hearing to know whether she will compete in her first major senior international event at the IAAF World Championships in Doha, Qatar, next month.

Editor’s note: Tanya Lee represents Briana Williams as her brand manager and communications adviser