RICHARDS Jereem

General
COACH SWITCH
In November 2020 he moved to Florida, United States of America, to train with Lance Brauman's training group ahead of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, having previously been based at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL, under former coach Blaine Wiley. "With the things that are happening in the world and not being able to train sufficiently with regards to COVID-19 and let's say it gets back bad and we wouldn't be able to use the facilities in the college [The University of Alabama], I didn't want to take chances and I decided to put myself in a position where, in the event that this happens, I'm somewhere that I will be able to train, somewhere where I have other professional athletes that might be going through the same struggles. Being around a group of professionals like this is very different to what I'm used to because at the college campus that I used to train on I was the only professional guy there, so it was difficult for me. I would have to dig deep all the time and push myself whereas now we will all have practices together and we will all look out for each other and push each other." (guardian.co.tt, 08 Dec 2020)

TRADING CARDS
He designed a pack of 80 athletics trading cards when he was unable to compete from March to December 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Athletics Excellence Trading Cards highlighted the achievements of Trinidad and Tobago's best past-and-present performers in the sport and featured digital cartoon character images of the athletes that had been produced by him. (worldathletics.org, 13 Feb 2021; trinidadexpress.com, 12 Oct 2020)

UNIVERSITY SWITCH
He began his studies at South Plains College in Levelland, TX, United States of America, where he competed in athletics during the 2014/15 season. He switched to The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL, in 2016. (Facebook profile, 31 Jan 2020; rolltide.com, 01 Sep 2017)