Kudos to our field events’ athletes in Paris
Older folk should be forgiven for wry chuckles on hearing discontent among younger Jamaicans triggered by a much lower than anticipated medal count at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.
The truth is that Jamaicans with memories dating back decades recall when medals earned by their athletes at Olympic Games were scarcer than proverbial hen’s teeth.
Friday’s penultimate day of track and field in Paris ended with Jamaica having won six medals — one gold, three silver, and two bronze. That’s a considerable distance below most pre-competition projections.
With three Jamaican medals still possible on Saturday’s last day of competition, the current count is in sharp contrast to four gold medals among nine at the Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 — continuing a rich vein dating back to the 1990s.
Yet, in September 1988, as Jamaicans struggled to keep an even keel following the utter devastation caused by Hurricane Gilbert, they took huge solace in just two silver medals at the Seoul Olympics.
At Mexico City, in 1968, Jamaica owed its only medal — a silver — to the lion-hearted sprinter, Mr Lennox Miller, in the 100 metres.
Mr Miller would go to Munich in 1972 to win a bronze in the 100 metres — again Jamaica’s only medal.
At Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, and again at Tokyo in 1962, Jamaica’s athletes came home empty-handed. In-between, Jamaica as part of the short-lived West Indies Federation, had to be content with two bronze medals.
Indeed, after the famous 4×400-metre relay team of Messrs Arthur Wint, George Rhoden, Herb McKenley, and Les Laing delivered at Helsinki, Finland, in 1952, Jamaicans had to wait another 24 years to celebrate another gold medal. That came when Mr Donald Quarrie won the 200 metres at Montreal, Canada, in 1976.
Prior to Mr James Beckford’s silver medal in the long jump at Atlanta, Georgia, in 1996, all of Jamaica’s Olympic medals were won on the track.
That fact bring us to the most extraordinary happening at the Paris Games so far, as Jamaica’s athletics is concerned: That’s the outstanding, unprecedented performances of our athletes in the field events.
Of the medals won in Paris so far, just two have gone to track athletes — fast-rising sprinter Mr Kishane Thompson, silver medallist in the 100 metres, who missed the gold by 5,000th of a second; and 110-metre hurdles bronze medallist Mr Rasheed Broadbell.
In the field, Mr Roje Stona’s spectacular 70 metre throw — an Olympic Record — in the discus, earning Jamaica’s lone gold medal up to Friday afternoon, led the way.
Also, Mr Rajindra Campbell took a bronze medal in the shot put.
Mr Stona’s gold and Mr Campbell’s bronze were the first-ever Olympic medals for Jamaicans in throwing events. Incredibly, two other Jamaicans, Messrs Ralford Mullings and Traves Smikle, joined Mr Stona in the discus final – another first.
Joining the successes in the field were triple jumper Mrs Shanicka Ricketts with a silver — the first for Jamaica in that discipline — and long jumper Mr Wayne Pinnock, who also took silver.
Much will be said regarding Jamaica’s performance in Paris, including high praise for those who gave of their very best. But when all is said and done, our field events’ athletes deserve the highest praise for claiming their places in the sun at long last.