Helps looks to give back

After being plagued by injuries, former ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships standout Shauna Helps has decided to end her athletics career and is now focused on giving back to the sport, by helping others who suffer from constant injury.

Helps represented the Wolmer’s Trust High School for Girls at Champs where she had many high points in her student athlete career, including getting a record of 11.50 seconds in the girls Class Three 100m, which stood for seven years until it was broken in 2019.

Helps said while the experience was great, the physical pain she suffered during her athletic career was unbearable and was the reason behind her decision to retire from athletics and focus on her career goals.

“The physical pain that you get from just doing a sport – like that aspect of it – that is probably why I changed my mind (about becoming a professional athlete),” Helps explained. “That’s why I am now saying it isn’t for me again.”

EDUCATION OVERSEAS

After high school, Helps went on to Florida State University where she graduated with honours in her study of exercise physiology.

She described her Champs experience as exciting, and holds fond memories of the 100th staging when the Wolmer’s Boys’ School won the male championships and Wolmer’s Girls finished sixth in their category.

Helps notes that while she does plan to give back to sports through her profession, she is not limiting herself and wants to help everyone who suffers the pain she experienced during her competing days.

“I just don’t want other people to feel such pain,” said Helps said, who graduated about a year ago and has been doing different jobs and gaining experience in her field.

Helps is also an entrepreneur and has experience in sport event management. She also volunteers at her alma mater, where she has been aiding the recovery efforts of student athletes at the institution.

“Prior to the closure of schools and the cancelling of Champs, I was working with the girls at Wolmer’s, trying to help them rehab and get fit for track meets that were (scheduled for) later down, but the track season got cancelled,” Helps said.

Helps said in the next two or three years, she hopes to open up her own clinical practice in exercise physiology.

Sharla Williams