PRAUGHT-LEER Aisha

General
FROM THE UNITED STATES TO JAMAICA
In 2013 she applied to the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association [JAAA] to transfer nationality from the United States of America after meeting her biological father Joseph Grant in Berlin, Germany, and discovering she has 11 half-siblings. She competed for the United States of America until 2015, when she became a US-Jamaican dual citizen and began representing Jamaica. "I grew up knowing I was Jamaican, but I really didn't know my father until I was an adult. I sort of just grew up with the knowledge that he was there, but I didn't meet him until the summer of 2013 when I was in Europe, and he lives in Berlin. Our meeting was really life-changing. Just looking into his eyes for the first time was really incredible. It sort of felt serendipitous, it was like, all of a sudden, that was my identity." (jamaicaobserver.com, 25 Aug 2015; jamaica-gleaner.com, 22 Jul 2015; falmouth.news, 04 Aug 2015; SportsDeskOnline, 30 Jun 2020)

EVENT CHANGE
In 2019 she switched from the steeplechase to the 1500m in order to preserve her body and allow her to compete for longer. That year she won silver in the 1500m at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru. "I'm a crazy person and decided to walk away from the steeple, where I was top 10 in the world, to one of the deepest, most talent-filled events. That's where I believe my strengths are and last year [2019] was the happiest and healthiest I've been in my career. I want to run as long as I can. The steeple is pretty unruly on your body. One wrong step and your dream's shot. I think for my longevity as an athlete, the 1500 is the move." (runnersworld.com, 12 Jun 2020; womensrunning.com, 27 Jan 2020)

RIO EXPERIENCE
She says the experience of competing at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro has caused her to prolong her sporting career. "I thought I was going to have a short career. I was just going to run for four or five years and move on. But it was really at the Olympic Games in 2016 that I realised, no, I want to do this for a really long time. And, in fact, I want to be really, really good at it instead of just pretty good. It's silly for me to call this a job, but it's the best job I can imagine doing." (womensrunning.com, 27 Jan 2020)