Aisha Praught-Leer ends storied run
Nat’l distance champion reflects on career, Olympic ‘disappointment’, retirement and legacy
Published:Sunday | August 4, 2024 | 7:35 AMShanel Lemmie - Staff Reporter
For the past 23 years, Aisha Praught-Leer has found her home on the track. Born to a Jamaican father and an American mother, the career middle- and long-distance runner said she knew early out that running was the outlet through which she wanted to explore her capabilities.
“I sort of fell into running. I didn’t do that many sports growing up. I did karate, I did dance, cheerleading and I found running when I was in middle school. I think I was 11 [years old] when I ran my first race. The exhilaration, the beating the boys at school, just having an outlet to try my hardest at something really drew me in.”
Starting first as a sprinter, Praught-Leer said she quickly found the ceiling of her achievements in that arena and moved on to longer races. Creating a three-mile loop around her parent’s house in Moline, Illinois, she would dedicate her summers to building up her endurance for the taxing races she would compete in.
“I normally [did] cheerleading but a friend convinced me to try cross country. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to make it the three miles that the race was. My parents were really worried when they came to the first cross country meet thinking ‘is she gonna have to stop and walk?’ But I dedicated myself quietly in the summer.”
She continued, “I fell in love with it because of, really, the camaraderie. Distance running is a bit different. You’re running mileage, you’re out there for a long time and really the relationships are super special because, at practice, we have hard days and we have easy days. And, on the easy days, you’re out for a jog and just chatting with you’re friends so you’re really just hanging out in motion. All of those friendships are what kept me running further.”
Soon finding success in the sport, Praught-Leer went on to compete in women’s 1500 metres, 3000 metres and steeplechase races representing her paternal home country, Jamaica.
Donning the black, green and gold in 2018, she won gold in the 3000 metre steeplechase at the Commonwealth Games in Australia while copping silver at the 2019 Pan American Games 1500 metre race. Praught-Leer has also represented Jamaica in two Olympic Games and three World Championships.
While the initial choice to represent Jamaica rather than the country of her birth in international games was accredited to the athlete reconnecting with her father in 2013, she says the choice has had a ripple effect of positivity in her life.
“I grew up in a really small town and I didn’t know any Jamaicans growing up. There was always a part of me that I knew was there but I didn’t know anything of it. It wasn’t until I was in my early 20s that I connected with him and it’s made my life so much fuller.”
Beaming she went on, “Every time I’m here, I learn so much and I learn so much about who I am and my culture that were the missing puzzle pieces that I get to slowly fit in to my life. I am also grateful that my family has open arms so when I’m here my brother is with me for every championship and I get to celebrate it with my little nephew who’s two, and it’s just made my life complete.”
Now, as Praught-Leer prepares to hang up her spikes and enter retirement on a bittersweet note, she says she is grateful for the run she has had.
“I did not make the team this year and it’s been such a disappointment. I really had been projecting this. Since the Tokyo Olympics, I’ve always known that this could be my last year competing. I’m 34 and I’ve been to two Olympics and I’ve had such a great career but, unfortunately, this year I couldn’t hold my body together for the whole years and be able to either race enough to get into the quota or just having ill-timed injuries to be able to go out and be ready to hit the standard. So, although I’m the national champion and my body is just starting to feel good again, I ran out of time to hit the standard.”
Meeting the disappointment gracefully, she explained that being an athlete has prepared her to meet challenges like this one.
“It’s not the note that I wanted to end my career on, the failure of not making the team, but I have been through so many hard things that I know that each time you go through something that you think is gonna break you, you’re not broken. You learn so much about yourself and you learn so much about the people around you, and you realise you have so much resolve and there are reasons for everything. This isn’t going to define my career, one failure or one win doesn’t define anything.”
She continued, “When I look at my career, I think I’m most proud that I wasn’t supposed to be as good as I was. I wasn’t a crazy standout athlete, I was never the most talented person in the room but I did have a few years there where I became a world-beater. There are a few races where I just fully reached every teeny tiny gram of potential that I have in my body, and that’s rare for an athlete.”
While dedicating half her time to improving middle-distance running in Jamaica, Praught-Leer says she will continue fighting for athletes’ rights.
“I have spent the last five years as a member of the Athletes’ Commission for World Athletics, so I’m very actively involved in rule-making and athlete advocacy on the global scale, and I try to centre Jamaica in all of my decision-making and, all of the meetings that we’re in, I think, ‘What’s best for Jamaican athletes?’. So, from that perspective, I have three more years of being in that role and I hope to just continue to make this sport landscape a better place for athletes so they can earn more money, be on fair starting lines, and continue to just take track and field to new heights.”