Registration for the Colgate Women’s Games opens on November 28 at the Armory in Washington Heights, and Cheryl Toussaint has spent a decade counting what the girls leave with that is not a scholarship.
Toussaint, 73, has been meet director of the Games since 2015. She won a silver medal in the 4×400 meter relay at the 1972 Munich Olympics, went to Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn and to NYU, and lives in Teaneck, New Jersey. The Games began in 1974 and are entering their sixth decade. Around 1,000 athletes competed last year, across the 55-meter dash and hurdles, the 200, 400, 800 and 1,500-meter races, the high jump and the shot put.
“They’ve been doing this for 50 years and over 5,000 scholarships have been awarded to date,” she said. Then she said the part that is harder to put on a banner. “Not every athlete is going to walk away with a scholarship, but they’re all going to walk away with the life lessons.”
The alumnae are the argument for the first half. Dalilah Muhammad of Jamaica, Queens, a gold medalist at two Olympics, retired this year. Natasha Hastings, a Brooklynite, has two Olympic golds. Sha’Carri Richardson turned up last year to watch the girls run.
Toussaint said the rest of them get the other thing. “That’s how they eventually learn to lead,” she said, “because every time you step on a track, you’re learning how to lead.”
