Vincentian Olympian Shafiqua Maloney and her mother Jessica Maloney were reunited publicly on Wednesday after eight years apart.
The US-based athlete was in St. Vincent earlier this year but her mother, who works on a cruise ship, was not in the country.
However, they both touched each other for the first time in eight years when Maloney returned to St. Vincent on Wednesday to relax after making history as the first Vincentian to advance to the finals of an Olympic event.
Jessica Maloney watched her daughter’s historic performance from onboard the cruise ship on which she works, having paid for internet services to do so.
“… welcome home, my daughter. … eight years, I haven’t seen her, so it’s been a great feeling seeing her this afternoon,” the mother said during a welcome event organised by the government at Argyle International Airport.
“On her journey to Paris, I was actually at work, very far away, cuz I worked on a cruise ship, actually, and it was in the Caribbean. So, it was really far from Paris. However, when the time for the games to start, I keep following up to check,” the mother recalled.
She said Royal Caribbean, the cruise line for which she works, was not broadcasting the games.
“So, I decided to get internet, no matter how much it cost me. I mean, I must get some internet to look at how my daughter will be running,” the mother said.
“So, on the first game, I was nervous. I was shaking,” she said, adding that she was looking at the race and looking away.
“I was like, ‘Okay, better I see the results because I don’t want to finish watching the race. And then when I saw the result, I was all like screaming for the first one, get with my colleagues, and we were all having fun.”
She said that the second race was more emotional for her and she “ran away from work” to view the results on her phone.
“And when I saw that she came in second, I was in tears, really in tears to see how much she really pushed herself to get to that point for the second for the semi-finals.”
And, when Shafiqua was running in the finals, her mom gathered some colleagues together.
“We were all jumping and screaming. And then most of them, when they find out that it was my daughter, they were like, ‘But you are so quiet. Why you keep it to yourself?” the mother said, adding that she is not a talkative person.
“So, they were really surprised and they were all happy as well to know that it was my daughter there on the international stage at that time.”
She described as “a fantastic feeling” seeing her daughter on the international stage.
“My daughter, I’m very, very proud of her, the challenges that she go through, actually, to go through with what she is doing, it’s nothing more than discipline for herself.”
She described the athlete as a “well-mannered young lady” who never gave her “any trouble of any sort from ever since.
“So, I’m really, really thankful for her. And you know, Mommy love you very much,” Jessica Maloney told her daughter during the event, which was broadcast live via the media.
Maloney entered the Paris Olympics as the 27th fastest woman in the 800m and finished as the 4th.
She was edged out of a place on the podium by .22 seconds during the finals.