Jamaica’s Long Tradition of Claiming Olympic Top Spots

Unlike the World Championships where the champion in each event gets an automatic pass (a bye as it is better known) in the Olympics, each person has to qualify for his or her spot. With the exception of the relays, only three persons per event on a team are allowed. Jamaica, at this time, has on its roster of over six men who have personal bests (PBs) of sub-10.0 seconds in the 100m sprint.

To make things more interesting, four of those athletes have PBs at 9.8secs or below: Usain Bolt 9.58 (current world record), Asafa Powell 9.72 (former world record), Nester Carter 9.78 and the current World 100m champion, The Beast Yohan Blake 9.82. Which of these four men will not make the team? Your guess and bet is as good as anyone else’s.

One thing is certain, whichever three make the final cut, barring injury or any unforeseen event, Jamaica will be well represented and could repeat the feat of its ladies in the 100m finals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics by claiming the three top spots.

Ironically and symbolically, it was in the London Olympics of 1948 that Jamaica started this tradition of claiming the top spots in an event, when Arthur Wint and Herb McKenley got the gold and silver respectively in the 400m finals, thus giving Jamaica its first Olympics medals. Many Jamaicans can recall that Herb entered the race as the world record holder and the favorite. As the race got on the way, Herb got out to a big lead and by the 300-meter mark, the 6’ 4” Wint made a remarkable surge to cut into the lead. With less than 10 meters to go, he caught Herb and beat him across the finish line by a mere fraction of a second to finish in a time of 46.2secs equaling the then Olympic record barely ahead of Herb’s 46.4.

At the next Olympics in 1952 held in Helsinki, Finland, Jamaica proved to the world that they were real, by winning the gold and silver again in the 400m final, this time with George Rhoden and again with Herb McKenley, respectively. McKenley showed his versatility by entering the “rare double” – 100 and 400 meter – and came away with the silver medal in both events. Arthur Wint, just as he did in the previous Olympics, got a silver medal in the 800m again. Jamaica showed their dominance in the 400m, when Leslie Liang teamed up with Rhoden, McKenley and Wint in the 4x400m relay to win the gold medal and set a world record (3:03.9) in the process.

For several years since then, the question many Jamaicans have asked is, which of their Olympians will be bringing home medals. As Jamaica participation in these Olympics evolve, the question have shifted from who will be bringing home the medals to how many will they bring home. Since Wint’s first gold medal in in 1948, and with the exception of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Jamaica has won only seven gold medals in all the Olympics combined. We can all recall that in Beijing 2008 Jamaica took home six gold among 13 medals.

As a testament to Jamaica’s growth in the sport of track and field, there are two questions being asked today by Jamaicans and track and field fans globally. The obvious one is which top male sprinter will be left off the individual sprint team. The other is, can Jamaica bring home more than 13 medals at this year’s Olympics.