Chequeda De Boulet, medalist in Carebaco Championships, is from Trinidad and Tobago and started competing in the Pan Am Circuit last year, fighting to rise in the ranking and win not only matches, but experience that allows her to continue competing at the best level and fulfill her dreams.
“Right now, I’m just trying to compete as much as possible I’m just trying to find my breakthrough right now. Last year was really a tough year I’m just trying to get my confidence on the international tour, it’s very different to competing in Trinidad, so I’ll like to qualify for some big events probably World Championships but that is based on ranking, so I need to get a lot of good results to make that dream happen.”
De Boulet decided to compete in the Pan Am Circuit from 2022, accompanied by her racket and the long-distance support of her family, since she is the only athlete from her country. who competes on the circuit.
“The first time I started was last year and it was honestly a very lonely because I didn’t know a lot of players, only if the other Caribbean people are there, so that part was a little bit lonely and also having to manage everything alone like going to the meetings and coaching myself and so on, but I found a balance and it has taken me out of my comfort zone and I’m able to meet a lot new people and it’s been all better this year”
A year of a lot of learning that has allowed her to learn and meet more people, improve her game and show how far she can go. At 22 years old, Chequeda is ranked 30 in the Pan American ranking and wants to continue progressing in her game.
“At the moment I see there’s a lot of tournaments for improvement, and I’m involved with progress. but I’m really hungry for more and I really want to perform well in the Pan Am tour and just show what I’m capable of.”
The progress, drive and encouragement is also inspired by people Chequeda admires, such as Michelle Li, who also started traveling alone to compete and now competes on the world circuit, representing the region’s badminton very well.
“From the Pan Am region Michelle li was really a big inspiration also seeing that, well now there are lot more of Canadian players on the BWF tour but when she started, she spoke about you know traveling on the own and having to do everything and her story gets me a little more hope because now she has a team built around her and she is also performing really well.
Chequeda started in sports playing tennis, however she was encouraged to try something different, and badminton was her best choice, seeing the opportunity to reach great achievements for herself and her country.
“I started when I was thirteen years old after I joined my secondary school, I was looking for clubs to join and well at that moment I was playing tennis, but the school didn’t have a tennis club, so my dad encouraged me to join the badminton club. After that, I played exclusively so I stop playing tennis and I got involved in a national club and from there I start taking part in national tournaments and then regionally in the Caribbean.”
In addition to badminton, Chequeda also studies accounting and fortunately she can organize her time well in order to excel in sports and academics.
“At the moment I’m studying treasury accounting I’m quite fortunate that with the programme that I’m in is very flexible, so I get to do my lectures online and also get to organize when I write exams so I’m able to write exams when I return after competing, so I study while I travel and then when I return, I usually write my exams.”
One of her favorite hobbies is exploring YouTube and she has managed to document her sports life on a YouTube channel: @quedadeboulet, contributing to the dissemination of badminton, sharing her journeys during tournaments.
“I was encouraged by one of my friends because it’s very unique and not a lot of people know badminton and I saw it as an opportunity to show people who may not know the sport to find what it ends deals and I’m also a big fan of YouTube, I watch lot of blogs, so I said I’ll give it a try “
A great support for Chequeda is her family, who support her and encourage her in her career. Since badminton is not very popular in her country, her own resources are what allow her to continue competing and her parents are the support that allows her to continue with her sporting dreams.
“I think most of the thanks I owe to my parents because I even won’t be at the 99% of the tournaments if it wasn’t’ for them, I’m a self-founded athlete so they help me to pay for all the tournaments I go, so definitely my family.”
