GoodHeart | Ricardo Davis pushes through setbacks to pursue triathlon

WESTERN BUREAU:

Nineteen-year-old sports enthusiast Ricardo Davis has spent years getting in shape to compete in and promote triathlon, a sport he enjoys so much that not even a childhood injury could keep him from pursuing it.

Davis, who hails from Fairfield, Irwin, St James, is the 2025-2026 National Triathlon champion. He was also the recipient of the VIP Attractions Triathlon Award at the recent Jill Stewart MoBay City Run Champions of the West Awards Ceremony, held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre.

“Not many people in western Jamaica know about the triathlon sport for sure, because it is not one of the biggest sports in Jamaica. They do not understand the training you have to put in for it, because it is three sports in one, and not many people are used to that,” explained Davis, outlining that the triathlons involve swimming, cycling, and running.

“Being at the awards ceremony was an honour for sure, and I like that it probably helped to spread awareness about triathlons,” he added.

Davis has already represented Jamaica on the regional and international stage, captaining the national team at the 2025 CARIFTA Triathlon and Aquathlon Championships in Trinidad and Tobago. He also represented the country at the Central America and Caribbean Youth Pan American Games in Cuba and is set to compete at the upcoming CARIFTA Triathlon and Aquathlon Championships in Bermuda.

Davis’ interest in triathlon began with swimming, which he started at the age of four. But at 12, he experienced two injuries which left him questioning whether to continue the sport.

“I have been swimming for a long while, but when I was around 12 years old, I got a back injury and a knee injury back-to-back, and that set me back. After that, when I was recovering, I was a few milliseconds away from making a swimming team, and at that point, I was ready to give up swimming for a while,” Davis, a first-year law student at The University of the West Indies, Mona, told GoodHeart.

But Davis kept at it, finding ways to train on his own while attending Cornwall College.

“The training that I did by myself would involve indoor bike sessions, because it was not every morning that I would be able to go out and cycle with a group due to my schedule and having to balance school life. For the running part of it, I had my own run route where I would do between 3K to 5K runs four times a week on Bottom Road (Jimmy Cliff Boulevard), because track training was at a specific time at school, and it would not work out for my schedule with the courses I was doing,” he shared.

Davis continued, “For swimming, my swim coach ended up leaving Jamaica, and once he left, it was really hard to find back my bearings and to find back the sets that I needed to do. I ended up asking him for some sets, and I would go to the pool or to the beach and do the sets myself.”

Having seen his perseverance pay off, Davis is encouraging young people interested in triathlon to make use of the opportunities and resources available to them.

“There are resources everywhere around you, such as there being free beaches out there where you can swim,” he said, adding that aspiring triathletes could also do exercises at home to build their muscles for cycling.

“Regarding the running, I am sure they can find somewhere to run, and I recommend they join teams and try and use the facilities at their schools because they provide for students. Then you can take those training settings, readjust them a little, and use them to transition into the sport of triathlon,” Davis said.

goodheart@gleanerjm.com