The Trinidad & Tobago Olympic Committee recently announced the track and field roster for the Tokyo Olympics and four athletes with LSU ties were named to the roster, including Richard Thompson, Kelly Baptiste, Semoy Hackett and Akanni Hislop.
Thompson and Baptiste will both be making their fourth appearances at the Olympics, while Hackett will represent her home country for the second time on the world’s largest stage. It will be the first time that Hislop has been selected to the senior national team.
All four athletes are listed in Trinidad and Tobago’s 4×100 meter relay pool; Baptiste also will be competing individually in the 100 meter dash. Baptiste is a nine-time Trinidad & Tobago national champion winning her country’s national titles eight times in the 100 meters dating back to 2005, and winning the 200 meter national title once as well (2005).
Thompson is LSU’s most heralded Olympic athlete as he has won a total of three medals (one gold, two silvers) dating back to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. He finished second in the finals of the 100 meters at the Beijing Olympics with a time of 9.89 seconds only crossing the finish line after one other person, Usain Bolt (9.69). That same summer he also anchored the Trinidad & Tobago 4×100 meter relay to silver behind Jamaica; but that silver turned into gold in 2017 when Jamaica was stripped of its medal after one of its runners was later found to have failed a drug test. He also anchored T&T to silver in 2012 in London in the finals of the 4×100 meter relay. Thompson is the fastest man to ever come out of Trinidad & Tobago with his personal best time of 9.82 seconds in the 100 meters, which makes him the 11th fastest man in world history.
Hislop wrapped up his LSU career this past outdoor season, running the third leg of LSU’s 4×100 meter relay team that won the NCAA event title on June 11 with a time of 38.48; he racked up a total of four All-America awards dating back to 2017 at LSU. He also helped LSU win SEC event titles in the 4×100 meter relay at the 2019 and 2021 SEC outdoor championships.
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