FAITH IS A FIVE LETTER WORD

So I am leaving for Beijing tomorrow at 12:55pm. As I type, I am still up in San Jose, CA but my flight leaves from LAX. So guess what? In about 3 hrs or so, I have to drive down to LA....not looking forward to it, but oh well, I'll sleep on the plane.

Now that everything has been completely sorted out, I need to say a couple things. The past three weeks of my life have been TUMULTUOUS to say the least. Now I know I mentioned a couple weeks back that something had come up that was very trying but I did not say what that was, except to say that I hoped everything would work out in my favour. Only as of this morning, did I get final confirmation that it had.

In a nutshell, without getting into too much of the specifics, I was selected by my National Track and Field Federation (BAAA's) as a member of The Bahamas Olympic Team. They selected a total of 18 athletes in my sport. My Olympic Association however (BOA, who for the record have since this debaucle been entirely voted out of office)), entered 17 names and did not submit my name for entry in a timely manner and as a result, the deadline for entries passed.

By the time I became aware of this omission, there was very little time to rectify the situation. Initially the IAAF said that they were sorry, but there was nothing they could do because the deadline had passed. I thought that was it. Of course I was in ruins, gutted, devastated, everything you can imagine, trust me. However, with the guidance, counsel and encouragement from the BAAA's, the new BOA members, from my friends, from my family, and from the Bahamian public and press, I tried to remain positive and keep praying and keep training. To say that this was an enormous challenge given the possible negative outcome would be a huge understatement.

At the end of the day, the athlete's rep for the IAAF, Mr. Frankie Fredericks (he was 2nd to Michael Johnson in that world record 200m in the Atlanta Olympic Games), former many time Olympic medalist from Namibia and now Mr. Who's Who on the IAAF and IOC saw to it that the situation was addressed and that my name was rightfully added back to the startlist for the women's long jump, only as of THIS MORNING!!!!

I have shed enough tears, I have lost a bit of weight and I have been pretty low, but through it all, I somehow managed to have faith that things would work out. I didn't know how or why or when but I kept listening to Mary Mary's song which says in part "nobody told me the road would be easy, but I don't believe He's brought me this far to leave me". Those words saw me through everything and now I am leaving tomorrow and I will join my team members who are already there in time to participate in Friday night's Opening Ceremonies which is mandatory for all Bahamian athletes.

To everyone that has stood by me (in particular Mr. Mike Sands), you all know who you are, I say THANK YOU. I am truly in your debt. I didn't talk about this with too many people because it was much too hard but I feel that in the aftermath, it is only fair that I share exactly what has been happening. Had it not worked in my favour, trust me, I had my blog readers in mind....what was I going to say? The truth, yes. How so, I wasn't sure. I just decided to wait until that truth in it's entirety and this saga had come to an end, one way or another.

Anyway, so that's it. Probably the next time you hear from me, I'll be showing you my pictures from The Bird's nest and The Opening Ceremonies where I, Jackie Edwards, will be competing in my fifth and final Olympics. I like the sound of that.