By Neto Baptiste
At age 28, powerlifting athlete Joshua Spencer is already an international champion having won in China, where he became that country’s first Black strongman winner last November, and also in the USA, where he placed second in that country’s strongman championship also in 2023.
But, the Antigua-born athlete, who has lived in the USA since 2011, has not had the fairytale journey one would expect.
Born on December 24 1995 to Guyanese parents Jude and Nichole Spencer right here in Antigua, the athlete said his fight for survival started at Holberton Hospital — the country’s lone public hospital at the time — but credited his mother’s will and determination for him to have a normal life for where he is today.
“I was premature so within that early stage of coming out of the hospital, I had to go back and spend most of my time there. I was told at the early stages [of life] I should have died after losing oxygen to the brain and then coming back to life by the grace of God. So, I had development problems where I couldn’t read, write, hold a pencil or do anything physical at all, not even talking,” he said.
“They recommended putting me into a special-ed school because I couldn’t be around my peers but my mother didn’t allow that to happen and she forced through and said, ‘I am going to have my kid be part of a normal school’. What my mom would do is every morning she would dress my brother and I together and literally leave us outside of the school every single day until the school comes up once and decides, ‘let’s take him in’,” he added.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo sports show at the time, Spencer said the journey was especially difficult during his early school years at the Liberta Primary School and then the Greenbay Primary School.
“It was difficult, from bullying, from being laughed at, from being isolated to where I’m at now; it’s so beautiful and it’s such a joy to have that. If I had only allowed what the world or society said I would be and accept that, then I wouldn’t be achieving what I am achieving today, and without a mother like that who pushed, then I wouldn’t be here right now having this conversation,” the athlete said.
Spencer, who represents the USA at official meets but never misses an opportunity to fly his Antigua and Barbuda flag, said his dream is get more Antiguans involved in the sport.
“That is the goal and that is the plan and that is why I took my [Antigua and Barbuda] flag to China and I took the American flag when it comes to representation because I said, ‘you know what, my country needs this and they should have this’, so I took the flag and I fly it proudly. I see the Chinese already has a relationship with Antigua which is a beautiful thing and I heard that an embassy just opened, so what a perfect time to show that we have potential which creates an open road and lane that children who cannot be in a bodybuilding world, we have a strongman world we can do,” he said.
Spencer, who spent some time in Antigua recently, visited a number of schools and met with a number of individuals as he seeks to drum up support for his endeavours on the international scene.