Focused and motivated, Tia Adana-Belle ready for another shot at the Olympics
Tia-Adana Belle’s first Olympic experience was defined by a flash that cost her a chance to shine, and the slight that drove her there still pushes her to get back.
The Barbados-born athlete stood on the track at Saint Augustine’s on Thursday and flipped through her mental rolodex. Belle can almost paint a picture through her words of the opening ceremony for the 2016 Olympics, where she represented her country in the 400-meter hurdles, her first trip to the games.
Speaking with a thick Barbadian accent, Belle talked about hanging outside the stadium with thousands of athletes representing countries from all across the world. She can remember the exact outfit the athletes from her country wore, a blue jacket with yellow pants. As she recalled, trying to organize athletes from every corner of the globe is as hectic as it sounds.
She can also remember the moment on the track — it happened in a flash — that she briefly lost focus. Just long enough to possibly cost her a spot on the podium, returning home instead empty handed. Belle was out to a big lead, which surprised her at that level. For a split second she allowed herself to step outside of the race and actually observe the atmosphere, a flash of a camera bulb in the first curve catching her eye.
But the memory that keeps her locked in was a comment made during her prep days, when a so-called friend made what at the time, seemed like a harmless remark, taken more like a jealous statement that pierced her memory bank, always pushing her to go harder.
“Being hurt by people you care about and you thought were in your corner,” Belle said. “That drives me.”
In Barbados it was common for Belle and her group of friends to head into town after school. It’s what all the teenagers did. One day Belle couldn’t go because she needed to practice. One of her schoolmates - Belle didn’t want to use the word friend - questioned why Belle didn’t want to join the group for some after school fun.
“She made a comment like ‘Tia’s mom thinks she’s going to the Olympics and run fast but she’s not going to do anything,’” Belle said as if the incident just happened yesterday. “She was supposed to be my friend. That’s been motivation. I keep replaying that in my head all the time. When I made it to the Olympics it felt good when I got there.”
Belle felt validated when she made it to the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro. Getting there proved that schoolmate wrong. But getting there wasn’t enough. The 2017 graduate of Saint Augustine’s has unfinished business when she heads to Tokyo this summer. Belle, 22, ran the world’s fastest time this year in the women’s 400 hurdles on March 28, easily winning with a time of 54.18.
A 14-time all-American for the Falcons, Belle captured three straight NCAA Division II national titles in the 400 hurdles and is one of just two hurdlers to win three straight national titles in that event.
She holds the Division II national record in the 400 hurdles (55.42) and holds six of the top second all-time collegiate times, including the top four times.
She’s the latest in a long line of Olympians to train under legendary coach George Williams, who, right before he started Belle on a workout routine on Thursday, had to turn down a trip to Japan to do a track and field workshop. Just doesn’t have the time in his schedule, one more Olympian of his own to train.
“Now the light is coming on,” Williams said. “It’s all coming out. She’s young.”
The lights might be what got Belle in trouble in 2016. It was her junior year at SAU and there she was, competing in her first Olympic games. When she qualified she wouldn’t allow herself to get excited. She was more interested in breaking the NCAA record anyway, which she did. The opening ceremony parade was when it hit her that it was really the Olympics. Once her event arrived Belle admitted she expected things to be a bit more challenging.
She was leading all the way to the top curve. When she looked around and realized she was out in front, Belle allowed herself to lose focus.
“I thought, ‘Where are the other people?’” Belle recalled. “’I’m not supposed to be up here alone.’ I completely lost focus and that’s why I didn’t make it to the semifinals. They had some lights in the corner and I lost complete focus.”
Sprinting out to the big lead let her realize she belonged in the big leagues. The brief lapse of focus was a learning experience that cost her a chance to show the world she was one of the best. It happened just that fast. Belle went from leading the pack to finishing 27th.
She called the entire experience an eye opener.
“That moment right there is the only thing I remember from the Olympics,” Belle said. “That’s what I took away from the Olympics.”
Williams has seen it thousands of times; a split-second lapse that ends up hurting an athlete. He remembers a former hurdler out to a big lead, who hit the last hurdle and finished fourth. Since Belle returned to Raleigh to train, Williams has seen how locked in she’s been.
“It’s great all away around,” Williams said. “She understands and the people she’s around who have been on the Olympic level. Everything seems to be in place. It’s just that on any given day, if it’s the right day she can be on the top of the podium.”
If the first Olympic trip was an eye opener, this one coming up is all business. Belle has been all over — Brazil, Japan, Canada — so to her it’s just another track meet. She wants to get the full Olympic experience, but she wants to come back with a medal.
