- Government Approved Citizenship by Investment Project
- +1 767 448-5775
- info@anichidevelopment.com
-
Japan
At the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Dominica once again found itself at the heart of the sporting headlines. In the triple jump, Thea LaFond-Gadson recorded 14.89m, securing the silver medal and setting the season’s best mark. For any nation, such an achievement would be a source of national pride; for Dominica, it is also a strategic signal to the world.
This latest success is deeply intertwined with personal perseverance. At the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Thea LaFond-Gadson claimed Dominica’s first-ever Olympic medal — and it was gold. Yet even then, her performance was shadowed by a knee injury that only became public afterwards.
Her triumphant return home was marked not only by ovations, but also by a telling detail: she greeted supporters with a cane and a knee brace, having undergone surgery shortly after her victory. Her participation in subsequent major competitions was uncertain, yet Thea remained composed and smiling, as though this turning point were simply the next step on her journey.
Where many athletes would have chosen a pause or even early retirement, she took another path — returning to the international stage and proving once again that even after a serious injury, she could still outjump most of her rivals.
LaFond-Gadson’s sporting career has long since become part of Dominica’s national story. Bronze at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, gold at the Paris Olympics in 2024 — the country’s first ever Olympic medal — and victory at the World Indoor Championships that same year. Each of her performances adds a new layer to the nation’s identity: not only a Caribbean tourist destination, but also a country whose citizens can compete on equal footing with the world’s best athletes.
Lafond-Gadsden’s achievements go beyond sporting records. In September 2025, she was elected to the World Athletics Athletes’ Commission, receiving 1,293 votes. This body plays a direct role in decision-making within the international federation, and through its leadership is represented on the World Athletics Council. For Dominica, her appointment signifies not only sporting prestige but also an institutional presence within the global athletics system. Such recognition at the highest level of sports governance is a landmark event for the country.
Sporting achievements are becoming an element of soft power. They strengthen Dominica’s reputation as a country that values perseverance, professionalism, and the ability to achieve goals on the global stage. Stories of such victories inspire and build trust in national institutions, confirming the nation’s resilience and ambition.
Dominica is gradually shaping an international image as a state where stability and the quality of institutions are combined with personal examples of success. The victories of world-class athletes such as Thea LaFond-Gadson have become symbols of this trajectory — they create an emotional background in which the country is perceived as a reliable partner, worthy of respect and long-term cooperation.
