Behind the Scenes at Rio 2016 with Tahesia Harrigan-Scott

Tahesia Harrigan-Scott is looking relaxed as the veteran Olympian of the British Virgin Islands’ team of four competing at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games. She is on her way to the Maracana training ground, adjacent to the stadium where she will be competing on August 12.

Rio 2016 is Tahesia’s third Olympic Games and where she will run the 100m.

It’s an evening training session and the track is active with athletes from all nations, including Grenada’s 400m Gold medalist, Kirani James, running drills.

Tahesia sips her pre-work out drink before she starts her routine of waking up her muscles with stretching exercises.

“Tonight I’ll be keeping it light with some starts, block work, and sprints,” she says. “So I’ll be taking off from the blocks for 10 and 20 meters and also do a couple of 100m and 110m sprints.”

She moves on to the track where she joins her training partners representing Haiti, Cayman, and Nigeria. Under the observant eye of coach and husband, Joey Scott, Tahesia goes through her sets of leg work – a series of fast, high-knee hops, skips and strides – which will fire up her muscles and trigger limb-placement memory for optimal results.

“At this point all the work is done,” says Coach Scott. “There’s nothing I can say to her or tell her now that’s going to have an impact. It’s all up to her and what we do at competition training is just fine tuning.”

The banter on the track is light and friendly but concentration on the tasks at hand is unwavering.

After measuring distance and adjusting the blocks to suit her leg position, Tahesia executes an impressive backward lunge to land both her feet precisely on the blocks. Lined up against fellow sprinters from elsewhere, Tahesia waits for the start signal before she explodes off the start, keeping up with the four men in the lanes next to her.

Her performance that session wins the nod of approval from Coach Scott. It’s time for a post work out treatment with Team BVI’s physiotherapist, Matt McGrath.

“I’m feeling good,” says Tahesia as she comes off her last, fast sprint. “This is the first Games where I can say I don’t have any niggling worries, for example an injury that I might not have mentally shaken off. Everything seems aligned for me and I feel well balanced in body, soul and mind to give this my best shot.”