Tahesia Gaynell Harrigan-Scott (born 15 February 1982) is a sprinter from the

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.Athlete biography: Tahesia Harrigan
beijing2008.cn, Retrieved 27 August 2008. She was the first woman to represent the British Virgin Islands at the Olympics.

Career

Harrigan was born in the Virgin Islands to Doris Harrigan. Harrigan's illustrious track and field career began in

Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...

, Florida. As a 14-year-old 9th grader, she carried

Florida A&M University Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), commonly known as Florida A&M, is a public historically black land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida. Founded in 1887, It is the third largest historically black university in the Un ...

's Developmental and Research High School female track team to its first Class 1-A

Florida High School Athletic Association The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) is an organization whose purpose is to organize sports competition for high schools in Florida. It is a member of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). Florida uses ...

state track and field championship win in over ten years by sweeping the

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...

, the

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a ...

and

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...

. Some other highlights of her

prep PowerPC Reference Platform (PReP) was a standard system architecture for PowerPC-based computer systems (as well as a reference implementation) developed at the same time as the PowerPC processor architecture. Published by IBM in 1994, it allo ...

career include 13 FHSAA State Championship Track and Field victories as an individual or part of a relay team in high school ( 8 of those victories being going undefeated all four years in the 100 and 200 metres, 3 in the

, 2 in the

,). After graduating from high school as

salutatorian Salutatorian is an academic title given in the United States, Armenia, and the Philippines to the second-highest-ranked graduate of the entire graduating class of a specific discipline. Only the valedictorian is ranked higher. This honor is tr ...

in the spring of 2000, she was approached by several reputable Florida collegiate track and field programs, but chose the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

for its medical program. She red shirted her first year due to a fractured

tibia The tibia (; ), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it conn ...

, Harrigan exploded on to the university's conference scene setting school and conference records in the women's 60 m, 100 m, 200 m, and the long jump in 2002. She went on that year to compete as a representative of her country (BVI) in the Central American and Caribbean Games where she had a very good first showing. In 2004, Harrigan transferred to the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publ ...

where she honed her athletic prowess even further becoming a SEC powerhouse and an

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

finalist. She earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology in 2005 and a Masters in Speech Pathology in 2007 from Alabama. She was an All American at the University of Alabama and the University of Minnesota. She won the

race at the

2006 Central American and Caribbean Games The 20th edition of the Central American and Caribbean Games was held in the city of Cartagena, Colombia. The tournament began on July 15 and ended on July 30. Host city *Main host city **Cartagena de Indias *Subsites: ** Barranquilla, Colombia ...

, and finished fifth at the

2006 Commonwealth Games The 2006 Commonwealth Games, officially the XVIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Melbourne 2006 (Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm 2006'' or ''Naarm 2006''), was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth held ...

. The OECS sports desk named her most outstanding female athlete in 2006 for her top performances in international meets. Harrigan began her career as a professional sprinter in the spring of 2007. She has competed in several professional track meets in the US and abroad. Of the many sprint-oriented events she competes in, the crown jewel would have to be her current personal record in the 100 metres of 11.13 seconds. At the

2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held at the Luis Puig Palace in Valencia, Spain, March 7–9, 2008. Bid Valencia was announced the winning bidder by the IAAF on November 13, 2005 at an IAAF Council meeting in Moscow, Rus ...

Valencia, Spain Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

, Harrigan finished third in the final of the Women's 60m posting a new BVI national record of 7.09 sec. At the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

in Beijing she competed at the

sprint. In her first round heat she placed third behind Christine Arron and Lauryn Williams in a time of 11.46 to advance to the second round. There she failed to qualify for the semi-finals as her time of 11.36 was only the fifth time of her heat, causing elimination.

Anti-doping rule violation

Harrigan-Scott tested positive for the stimulant

methylhexaneamine Methylhexanamine (also known as methylhexamine, 1,3-dimethylamylamine, 1,3-DMAA, dimethylamylamine, and DMAA; trade names Forthane and Geranamine) is an indirect sympathomimetic drug invented and developed by Eli Lilly and Company and marketed as ...

in 2011, and was subsequently handed a 6-month ban from sports.UPDATE: Harrigan-Scott apologises for being suspended – says illegal substance was used unintentionally
Virgin Islands News Online, 9 November 2011

Personal bests

Achievements

References

External links