Caribbean/ American magazine names Shafiqua Maloney among ‘Persons of the Year’

Vincentian athlete, Shafiqua Maloney, is one of six persons named by a Caribbean/American magazine as Eastern Caribbean Olympians Persons of the Year. The publication, EVERYBODY’S, a 47-year-old Caribbean-American magazine, featured the Eastern Caribbean athletes for their triumphs at the 2024 Paris Olympiad.

Those named are Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia; Thea LaFond-Gadson of Dominica; Lindon Victor, Anderson Peters, Kirani James of Grenada; and Shafiqua Maloney of St. Vincent and the Grenadines who missed a podium finish by seconds in the 800m at the Paris Olympics. The publication said in a release that the athletes “all enhanced their nation’s stature and inspired the youth of the Caribbean”.

As Julien Alfred remarked, “When one Caribbean athlete wins, the whole Caribbean celebrates” and Caribbean people at home and in the diaspora indeed celebrated, especially with nationals of Dominica and Saint Lucia when their nation, for the first time, became recipients of Olympic medals, two gold and one silver.

“We salute the 2024 Jamaican Olympians. They brought home six medals – one gold, three silvers and two bronzes,” the publication said in its release.

Previous EVERYBODY’S Person of the Year who are Jamaicans include Usain Bolt (2008 & 2016), Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce (2019), and actress Sheryl Lee Ralph (2023), who was born in the U.S.

The magazine said beginning in 1978, EVERYBODY’S has been presenting its Person of the Year. Early recipients were Calypso Rose and the late Prime Minister of Dominica, Mary Eugenia Charles.

In 1980 the publication said it honoured Sir Arthur Lewis (deceased), for winning the 1979 Nobel Prize for economics and provided the proceeds from the dinner to the Governor General Children’s Fund in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.