Malone arrived in the territory on Tuesday, September 28, at the T. B. Lettsome International Airport to a welcome reception where the monetary gift was presented to her.

“I know Chantel really was going for the gold, and we would support her all the way to get to the gold, and I know that she was disappointed,” he said, referring to Malone not bringing home a medal.

He continued: “I want to say, Chantel I am extremely proud of you, and I will certainly seek to do even more than we have done before because during the journey I know that there was some level of anxiety about support and the athletes that you are competing against don’t have any shortage of support. And while we are just a small territory with just a fraction of the budget of those countries, we are going to seek to do more, we are going to do more, and that is something I can promise.”

In the meantime, Chantel remarked that she was pleased for the show of support from family, friends and the government ministers who came out to meet her at the airport terminal building.

“Being home is always the re-charge that I need before I head back to training, so coming home and visiting family is the best thing that I need especially in this time right now. I just want to get back to a place that I am centered in a world where I feel there is so much pressure being put on us to have everything figured out, and I think that this is something that I really need right now, so that’s my purpose of coming home, along with sharing the celebration with you guys,” she said.

Commenting on her performance at the recent Tokyo Olympics, she said, while she did not end on the note she intended, she set a personal best.

“I opened my season with the best jump of my life, and at that point, it was the leading jump for the season and the fourth jump for the season. So I am really proud to open up my season at that mark; seven meters was a dream of mine for a long time, and even though in my mind I knew what I wanted, I knew what it took to get there, I could not cross that barrier and finally attaining that goal was a major breakthrough for me, not only did I did it once, but I continued to do it for the next two meets following that,” she stated.

She said she was the only person this season to jump seven meters five times.

“So I was off to a great start, and then came the injuries,” she added, referring to her injured hamstring.

She is also expected to make a few school visits during her brief stay in the territory.