She skips, flips and jumps all the time. Even in her sleep, it is said, her small body jerks as if in constant motion.
Little Sydelle Hinds looks me over with huge, beautiful brown eyes, her long Dougla tresses cascading down her shoulders. We are at the Quarry Road, Siparia, home of her mother, Corine Hinds, and Sydelle, eight, appears about as ready to be interviewed as any person twice her age.
“Is she always this composed?” I asked her mother.
With a proud smile and shrug of her petite shoulder, Hinds said “Yes, even when she has a competition. There is not much that can really rattle Sydell, she is just that brave.”
It is that bravery that has seen Sydelle recently fly the flag of this country high, at the 2015 Panama Classics.
The little gymnast, a pupil of Crystal Stream Government Primary, Petite Valley, brought home three gold medals—first place in vault, bars and floor in her category. She also got an All Rounder trophy and placed fifth on the beams.
To date, Sydelle has so many trophies and medals from local meets that her godmother, Adina Robertson, has placed them all in a box for safekeeping.
Robertson and Hinds’ love for Sydelle is certainly inspiring.
They both share responsibility for her upbringing.
Robertson, who lives at Belmont, has eight biological children, but has taken care of Sydelle since she was a baby since her mother has been facing financial challenges. The bond between the two women has grown by leaps and bounds, as they speak to each other every day. Sydell spends all holidays at her mummy’s home.
“Sydelle is so loved...that’s what has her so confident, you know. She’s an excellent child, does well in school, always places in the first five, she’s loving. She’s a product of her mom,” she said.
Robertson recalled how it all started.
Sydelle, she said, was just three when at her pre-school, which offered extra-curricular activities, gymnastic coach Dale Ali noticed she had a natural knack for the discipline.
He asked her teacher to set up a meeting with Sydelle’s parents and quickly took her under his wings, where she blossomed in his club Olympia Gymnastics.
The club has brought home numerous medals and trophies for this country, with Sydelle adding to the stack over the last four years.
“When we saw how she progressed easily, Corine and I just automatically knew this was for her. She took to it like a duck to water. Not long after, she was competing locally,” recalled Robertson.
A trip to Barbados two years ago saw Sydelle happy to compete and smiling all the way back home, even though she did not do as well as her recent competition at Panama.
Robertson has taken on the commitment of travelling with Sydelle, anywhere her talent and training takes her.
“I just want to see her excel to the max. That’s what both her mother and I want for her. It’s easy because of her natural potential and her ability to pick up really quickly. She is such a fast learner, she forgets nothing. She has so much to offer this country, that it is easy to see her at Olympics,” she added.
Hinds shares their joy over the phone, through photos and Sydelle’s animated recollection of her stay at hotels which offer “plenty food to take for yourself.” The proud mother of six said she has never even been to Tobago, so hearing Sydelle’s tales of rooms with breathtaking views and being treated like VIP fills her heart.
For Hinds, her daughter’s accomplishments could not have happened but for the love, support and commitment that the child’s godmother has shown throughout the years. She admits, though, that it is sometimes hard for both Sydelle and herself when they have to part at the end of school vacations.
“Anything that sees her on top, doing what she loves, being who she wants to be and with the love of my friend backing her, is enough for me as a mother. She’s luckier than most, you know. She is a gymnast with two mummies,” she joked.
And with that kind of support system in place, T&T can certainly expect to see and hear more about little Sydelle Hinds’ success in the future.
VALDEEN SHEARS
