Adelle Tracey is a middle-distance runner who represented Jamaica at the Paris 2024 Olympics, racing in both the 800m and the 1500m. She is also dyslexic and dyscalculic, and she has spoken openly about how both have shaped her life on and off the track. We first wrote about her in the run-up to Paris. Her story is still worth telling, because it shows what happens when someone finds a setting that works with their strengths instead of against them.
Who is Adelle Tracey?
Tracey moved from Jamaica to the UK when she was seven and spent the early part of her career running for Great Britain. In June 2022 she switched her allegiance to Jamaica. At the 2023 World Championships in Budapest she ran 3:58.77 in the 1500m semi-final, a new Jamaican national record. In Paris she reached the repechage round in both of her events.
Dyslexia, dyscalculia and life as an athlete
Dyslexia affects how people process written language. Dyscalculia affects how people work with numbers. For a runner, that second one matters more than you might think. Training plans, split times, distances and paces are all numbers, and they come at you constantly.
Tracey has described finding school hard after she arrived in the UK, and being drawn to the things she was good at, such as running and being creative. In a 2020 interview with gsport, she said: “Sport has given me so much confidence in all walks of life.”
That’s the bit employers should pay attention to. Nobody fixed her dyslexia or her dyscalculia, and nobody needed to. What made the difference was finding a place where her strengths counted and the barriers could be worked around. If you want to understand more about how these differences look day to day, our guide to dyslexia in the workplace is a good start, and our piece on the history of dyslexia explains how thinking about it has changed.
What sport can teach the workplace
Elite sport is built around the individual. Coaches tailor training to the athlete in front of them, and nobody expects two runners to prepare in exactly the same way. Most workplaces still do the opposite: one way of working, and everyone is expected to fit it.
For a dyscalculic employee, small changes remove a lot of friction. Written instructions alongside spoken ones. Calculators and spreadsheet templates. A bit more time on number-heavy tasks, and managers who check understanding without turning it into a test. None of this is expensive, and much of it falls under an employer’s duty to make reasonable adjustments. Our list of reasonable adjustment examples has plenty more ideas.
It also helps to know how neurodivergence actually shows up at work, so that someone taking longer over a page of figures is understood as processing differently, not putting in less effort.
How Enna can help
If Adelle’s story has you thinking about your own team, start with shared understanding. Our Neurodiversity 101 workshop gives staff a common language for dyslexia, dyscalculia and other differences, and our workplace needs assessments turn one person’s needs into practical changes their manager can act on.
Dyslexic or dyscalculic and looking for an employer who gets it? Browse the Enna jobs board.
