Alia Shanee Atkinson, СD (born 11 December 1988) is a Jamaican five-time Olympian and a former competitive swimmer whose international competition career spanned 19 years, 2003 to 2021 inclusive, at the senior level. At short courseWorld Swimming Championships, she is a ten-time medalist in individual events, including four gold medals, four silver medals, and two bronze medals. She won a total of 124 medals, of which 74 were gold medals, at Swimming World Cup circuits over the course of her career. She won 14 total medals in individual events, 11 gold, 1 silver, and 2 bronze, from her first three Central American and Caribbean Games, in 2006, 2010, and 2018.
In 2014, Atkinson became the first Afro-Jamaican to win a world title in swimming, winning the short course 100-metre breaststroke at the 2014 World Swimming Championships with a world record time of 1:02.36. In 2016, she tied her world record in the short course 100 metre breaststroke on 26 August before setting a new world record in the short course 50-metre breaststroke on 26 October. Two years later, on 6 October 2018, she set her second new world record in the short course 50-metre breaststroke, marking her fourth world record time in an individual event. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, she became the second Jamaican swimmer to place in the top four at an Olympic Games, finishing fourth in the 100-metre breaststroke.
Atkinson stated her swimming mission in her SwimSwam bio as, "To place Jamaica on the world map of swimming; to agitate for the improvement of the infrastructural support for swimming in Jamaica so as to be able to take it to the next level; and to realize my full potential for myself, my parents, and my country."[4] She has also been vocal about not being related to Janelle Atkinson, who was the first Jamaican swimmer to finish in the top four at an Olympic Games.[2]
She won two medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in the summer of 2014, silver in the 50 m breaststroke and bronze in the 100 m breaststroke.[12] She also set two Commonwealth Games records in the heats and semifinal of the 50 m breaststroke.[12] Her swim of 2:25.48 in the long course 200-metre breaststroke set a new national record for Jamaica in the event.[13][14]
2014 Swimming World Cup
At the 2014 FINA Swimming World Cup stop in Singapore in November 2014, Atkinson won the short course 200-metre breaststroke, setting a new national record with her time of 2:17.84.[14][15]
Atkinson won the 100-metre breaststroke at the 2014 Short Course World Championships in Doha, Qatar in December (equaling the record of 1:02.36 set by Rūta Meilutytė in 2013), becoming the first Afro-Jamaican woman to win a world swimming title.[16][17] Her swim was the second time a woman hit the 1:02.36 mark internationally after Meilutytė. Because Atkinson was the second woman to reach the world record time she was not awarded the $10,000 associated with setting a world record because she did not set a new world record, instead tying the pre-existing one Meilutytė set in 2013.[18] In the 50-metre breaststroke she won the silver medal with a time of 28.91.[16]
At the 2015 FINA Swimming World Cup stop in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in November 2015, Atkinson swam a personal best time of 1:05.93 in the long course 100-metre breaststroke and set a new national record in the event. Her swim tied her for the 16th fastest swimmer in the event globally with Rikke Pedersen who was the world record holder in the long course 200-metre breaststroke at the time.[22]
At the 2016 FINA Swimming World Cup stop in Chartres, France in August 2016, Atkinson again tied the world record in the short course 100-metre breaststroke with a time of 1:02.36.[24] She did not win the $10,000 prize money for a world record as it was not a new world record.[18]
In October 2016, at the Swimming World Cup stop in Tokyo, Japan, Atkinson swam a 28.64 in the short course 50-metre breaststroke setting a new world record in the event.[25]
After the Swimming World Cup, Atkinson went on to win two gold and one bronze medal in individual events at the 2018 Swimming World Championships in Hangzhou, China in December. The first medal she won in the competition was a gold medal in the 50-metre breaststroke, swimming a 29.05 and finishing ahead of second-place finisher Rūta Meilutytė. Her next medal was a bronze medal in the 100-metre individual medley, finishing third with a time of 58.11 in the final, less than one second behind Katinka Hosszú and Runa Imai. Atkinson's third and final medal of the competition was a gold medal in the 100-metre breaststroke where she finished before American swimmer Katie Meili with a time of 1:03.51 in the final.[29]
In 2019 Atkinson was a member of the 2019 International Swimming League representing Team Iron.[32] She was a valuable member of the team winning the 50m breaststroke in all 3 matches the team competed in, and she also picked up two wins and one second-place finish in the 100m breaststroke.[33]
On 14 July 2021, FINA released its entry list for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan including that Atkinson was entered to compete in the 100-metre breaststroke.[34] Prior to the start of competition of Jamaican athletes at the 2020 Olympics, the Jamaica Olympic Association saluted its athletes including Atkinson.[35] In the preliminaries of the 100-metre breaststroke on Sunday 25 July, Atkinson swam a 1:07.70, finishing third in her heat, and did not advance to the semifinals.[36] She ranked twenty-second across all the preliminary heats and finished her competition at her fifth and final Olympic Games.[37]
On day one of competition, Atkinson tied Qianting Tang of China for first overall in the 50-metre breaststroke before Tang was disqualified, advancing Atkinson as the fastest swimmer to the semifinals with her time of 29.55 seconds.[42][43] In the semifinals, she was disqualified, which marked the fourteenth disqualification in the preliminaries and semifinals of breaststroke events on day one.[44][45] The following day, she helped place fourteenth in the 4×50-metre mixed freestyle relay, contributing a split of 25.04 seconds for the second 50 metre freestyle sprint leg of the relay.[46] The third day of competition, she swam a 29.14 for the breaststroke leg of the 4×50-metre mixed medley relay, helping achieve a time of 1:45.62 and rank of seventeenth and not qualifying the relay to the final.[47] She swam a 1:04.88 in the preliminaries of the 100-metre breaststroke on day four, qualifying for the semifinals ranking third.[48] She ranked fourth in the semifinals, qualifying for the final with a time of 1:04.26.[49] In the final she placed fourth, finishing in a time of 1:04.03 and eleven-hundredths of a second behind bronze medalist Mona McSharry of Ireland.[50]
Retirement
Following her final event at the 2021 World Swimming Championships, Atkinson announced her retirement from swimming competitions in December 2021 via Instagram and said something she was glad she got to end her career with was, "I get to retire with my 2 world records in tact."[51][52] In mid-2022, Atkinson was elected to serve as the chair for a first-ever FINA athlete committee focused on addressing gender and discipline-balance.[53][54]
Legend: NR – Jamaican record; Records not set in finals: h – heat; sf – semifinal; r – relay 1st leg; rh – relay heat 1st leg; b – B final; † – en route to final mark; tt – time trial
Legend: WR – World record;AM – Americas record;CR – Commonwealth record;NR – Jamaican record; Records not set in finals: h – heat; sf – semifinal; r – relay 1st leg; rh – relay heat 1st leg; b – B final; † – en route to final mark; tt – time trial
2015 Swammy Award: Central American & Caribbean Female Athlete of the Year.[58]
2016 Swammy Award: Central American & Caribbean Female Athlete of the Year.[59]
In April 2018, Atkinson was selected to serve as the flag-bearer for Jamaica at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, where she was the only swimmer representing the country at the Games.[6]
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Jamaica
