This week as the world is agog with the outstanding track performances by Jamaican athletes in the Rio Olympics, it’s interesting to reflect on the remarkable ability of this relatively small nation to produce such a high standard in athletics. The results by the Jamaicans, cresting in so many medal results, and highlighted by the once-in-a-lifetime performances of Usain Bolt, flow from natural athletic ability, of course, but it is widely acknowledged that the foundation of the level reached here is the concentrated programme of highly organized sports dedication that has been a part of Jamaican life for many years.
Books have been written about it, and the details are readily available, outlining the programme begun by the Jamaican government putting an athletics coach in every school in Jamaica leading to a series of championships, regional and national, which have become their track-and-field bedrock. The schools championships, starting at the regional level, and climaxing in the national championship, constitute a powerful engine for the athletes; they are extremely popular events, often with capacity crowds, even though the finals are carried on television.
Feeding the schools programme was the creation of a Sports College formed with the purpose of providing the array of coaches needed for the schools. Jamaica is the only country in the Caribbean with such a college, and the results from the young athletes speak volumes for the wisdom of the undertaking. Another possible reason for the positive sports picture is the national pride ingredient very evident in the Jamaican culture. I recall being in Kingston airport, en route to Guyana, towards the end of the previous Olympics on the day of the relay finals for women.
As the runners lined up, activity in the airport check-in area ground to a halt as passengers, airline staff, security persons, and even itinerant taxi drivers seeking fares, abandoned their duties and all clustered around the television monitors showing the Games; the airport check-in area had essentially come to a standstill; all eyes, mine included, were on the television screens. The roar that erupted when the Jamaican women captured gold was like a tsunami, but it was nothing compared to what took place a few minutes later when Usain Bolt ran the anchor leg in the Mens 4 x 100 metres relay and clinched the gold medal for Jamaica.
People were leaping and jumping, running helter skelter, hugging complete strangers, in a frenzy of delight. I have witnessed sports celebrations in many countries in the Caribbean and North America, but never have I seen anything that comes close to that Jamaican celebration that day. Their pride in their own was simply overflowing.
As we read about the excitement now occurring in Rio, it’s pertinent to note that as small as Jamaica is compared with the larger nations, it boasts an impressive list of achievements.
A recent online article reminds us that Jamaica had electricity and running water before the USA, and Jamaica was the first country in the Caribbean to gain independence. It fielded the first team from the English-speaking Caribbean to qualify for the Football World Cup (1998), and Jamaica ranks third on the list of nations with the most Miss World titles; the only countries to have won it more than Jamaica are India, Venezuela and the UK, and look at the size of those countries. Also, apart from the USA, Jamaica has won the most world and Olympic medals, was the first country to impose economic sanctions against the apartheid regime of South Africa, and was the first country in the Caribbean to launch a web site (1994).
Inevitably, in typical Caribbean style, there has been much speculation in the region about the factors behind Jamaica’s successes, including naturally the ones in music with the reggae and dancehall popularities, but particularly in the athletics field where the question of diet has found some writers avidly pointing to such items as Jamaica yams, roast fish, and “mannish water” and citing them as major factors behind the achievements in running. Mannish water is a soup with the principal ingredient of bull’s testicles, it is a very popular addition to many island menus, and can be the source of much merriment.
My Barbadian journalism Market Vendor friend Vic Fernandes relates an episode involving mannish water when he was with a group of West Indians travelling with a Canadian couple motoring from Kingston to Ocho Rios. They stopped at the famous Faith Pen eatery known for its roast fish and other Jamaican delicacies including the famous soup. Vic recalls: “We included the Canadian couple in our group of soup drinkers, and the lady made the mistake of asking, ‘What kind of soup is this?
It is so good.’ A Bajan in the group answered, ‘Made from the balls of the bull.’ Seeking more clarification, Canada was told, ‘It’s made from the testicles of an adult bull.’ The two Canadians turned purple in the face, bolted for the side of the hill and puked. My Bajan friend and I drank the soup they had abandoned.”
Whatever the source of their achievements, be it intensive coaching, fervent patriotism, or very peculiar diet, the Jamaican athletes are showing us in Rio that they are on to a winning formula.
