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More athletes staying home gives country stronger standings on the field
JAMES CHRISTIE
August 19, 2008
BEIJING -- That great sprinters come from Jamaica is no surprise.
To see them succeed while still wearing Jamaican colours has been the breakthrough of the Beijing Olympics.
Usain Bolt smashed the world record for the 100 metres, dropping his arms before the end as though to ask, where is everybody? In the women's 100 metres, Shelly-Ann Fraser took the gold medal and compatriots Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart tied for the silver, leaving U.S. women shaking their heads on the sidelines. Bolt and Fraser were the first Jamaican-born sprint athletes to bring home gold while still running for the island of their birth, not an adopted country such as Canada or Britain or, in the case of Merlene Ottey, Slovenia.
At the end of Monday night in Beijing, Jamaica had four medals on the running track, with a total national team of 51. Canada, with 332 athletes, had zero medals on the track. Not bad for a country of only three million that's not one of the wealthy states of the West.
More medals are expected in the men's and women's sprint relays and the 400-metre hurdles.
Athletes and coaches are staying at home, and the nest is starting to bulge with medal possibilities.
"Usain's from Jamaica? I thought he was from another planet," said Canadian sprinter Jared Connaughton, who had to run against the 6-foot-5 record setter in the second round of the 200-metre race. Connaughton, who attends the University of Texas at Arlington, said he has seen a difference in school teams that corresponds with the surge in Jamaica's profile and performance at the Olympics.
"Normally, most of the best Jamaicans are snatched up by the NCAA schools and run every weekend for the school to get points in meets," he said, noting the drop in Jamaican rivals in college meets. "It's like a sprint factory down there. Jamaica just keeps pumping them out.
"But now, the trend is for them to stay away from the riff-raff in the NCAA. At first, when Usain Bolt didn't want to take the offer to go to a U.S. college, the feeling was that he'd just be another sprinter who'd go away. But he hasn't gone away. That didn't happen."
Not by a long shot.
The home environment has been nurturing. Good coaches are staying home and, with the help of stars who keep Jamaica as their home base, are able to drive home the message that stars can be developed domestically. It helps that athletes in an outdoor sport such as track can practise year-round.
Having a handle on athletes at home, rather than seeing them run ragged for the glory of a foreign university, is important in recapturing Jamaica's identity in sport.
Herb Elliot, a Jamaican member of the International Amateur Athletics Federation's medical and anti-doping commission, noted it was time for a change. "NCAA scouts come here in droves to recruit, but our athletes often come back [from four years at U.S. universities] tired and mediocre."
There's a national and personal pride that comes with success, said Bolt, who has a legacy of starring in Jamaica's Boys and Girls high-school championships. He regularly returns as a celebrity, and that closeness to his athletic roots is noticed by the kids.
"There's a system in place now," said Kayon Raynor, a journalist with the Jamaica Observer. "Many more athletes are staying home and there are more trained coaches staying, encouraging the athletes. When it was known a few years ago that [sprinter] Asafa Powell was going to stay home, coaches were able to point at him and at his success to interest young athletes in staying back and putting U.S. college offers on the back burner. Once Asafa stayed, Bolt stayed. It's a copycat affair."
Training in Jamaica starts informally in the primary schools across the parishes and becomes seriously competitive at the high-school level. Sprinters recognize the Boys and Girls event as a premier track meet for raw talent. It used to be a magnet for U.S. recruiters, Raynor said. There were no sport scholarships in Jamaica and the U.S. schools offered an education that could be paid for by running.
Expatriate Jamaicans such as Donovan Bailey make the annual high-school meet a pilgrimage. Bailey was an Olympic gold medalist for Canada in 1996. A few years ago, he was at the Jamaican high-school championships and had his photo taken with both Powell and Bolt.
More sophisticated research and training takes place at the G.C. Foster college of sports in Spanish Town. Promotion of sports in the school system is complemented by private clubs, the most prominent being the MVP (Maximizing Velocity and Power) under Powell's coach, Stephen Francis. Because they can point to the names of high-profile members on the club roster, they often find themselves selling their talents to European promoters as a group.
"They're doing a lot of this because of some national pride," Elton Tucker of the Jamaica Gleaner said. "There are no federal money or rewards."
Bolt has been a perfect - and charismatic - example to the next generation of what can be accomplished staying in Jamaica. He is a homegrown talent from the farming hamlet of Sherwood Content in the parish of Trelawney in northwest Jamaica. His father, Wellesley, is a coffee production manager and his mother, Jennifer, a dressmaker.
Wellesley is certain "it's the Trelawney yams" that make his son run fast.
He played cricket as a youngster, but was also the tallest and fastest in his school. Coaches had to persuade him to pursue track because tall sprinters are so rare. He stands 6 foot 5, taller than Powell (6 foot 3) and Bailey (6 foot 1), and with his long stride can reel in runners who have better starts. His body type differs greatly from the old powder-keg profile of sprinters who tried to win a race on the power of the start.
Bolt has resisted the siren songs of U.S. schools. He has stayed at the University of Technology in Jamaica and trained with national coach Glen Mills, whose previous charges have included Raymond Stewart and former men's 100-metre world champion Kim Collins of Saint Kitts and Nevis.
UTECH developed from a two-year college to a full four-year university with 280 student athletes. It's still a work in progress, but the school is slowly finding sponsors for scholarship programs.
"We are running for the country and whether I'm first or second, I'll still be happy because both of us are going out there to represent," Powell said.
Powell, who set the world record six times but might never see it again, finished in fifth spot for his second consecutive Olympics. Powell ran 9.95 seconds. Six of the eight finalists broke the 10-second barrier.
He and Bolt laughed and walked together in the bowels of the Bird's Nest between rounds of the 100.
If Bolt's dominance rubbed anyone the wrong way, it wasn't apparent. Praise and goodwill seemed universal. Or maybe it was just
JAMES CHRISTIE
August 19, 2008
BEIJING -- That great sprinters come from Jamaica is no surprise.
To see them succeed while still wearing Jamaican colours has been the breakthrough of the Beijing Olympics.
Usain Bolt smashed the world record for the 100 metres, dropping his arms before the end as though to ask, where is everybody? In the women's 100 metres, Shelly-Ann Fraser took the gold medal and compatriots Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart tied for the silver, leaving U.S. women shaking their heads on the sidelines. Bolt and Fraser were the first Jamaican-born sprint athletes to bring home gold while still running for the island of their birth, not an adopted country such as Canada or Britain or, in the case of Merlene Ottey, Slovenia.
At the end of Monday night in Beijing, Jamaica had four medals on the running track, with a total national team of 51. Canada, with 332 athletes, had zero medals on the track. Not bad for a country of only three million that's not one of the wealthy states of the West.
More medals are expected in the men's and women's sprint relays and the 400-metre hurdles.
Athletes and coaches are staying at home, and the nest is starting to bulge with medal possibilities.
"Usain's from Jamaica? I thought he was from another planet," said Canadian sprinter Jared Connaughton, who had to run against the 6-foot-5 record setter in the second round of the 200-metre race. Connaughton, who attends the University of Texas at Arlington, said he has seen a difference in school teams that corresponds with the surge in Jamaica's profile and performance at the Olympics.
"Normally, most of the best Jamaicans are snatched up by the NCAA schools and run every weekend for the school to get points in meets," he said, noting the drop in Jamaican rivals in college meets. "It's like a sprint factory down there. Jamaica just keeps pumping them out.
"But now, the trend is for them to stay away from the riff-raff in the NCAA. At first, when Usain Bolt didn't want to take the offer to go to a U.S. college, the feeling was that he'd just be another sprinter who'd go away. But he hasn't gone away. That didn't happen."
Not by a long shot.
The home environment has been nurturing. Good coaches are staying home and, with the help of stars who keep Jamaica as their home base, are able to drive home the message that stars can be developed domestically. It helps that athletes in an outdoor sport such as track can practise year-round.
Having a handle on athletes at home, rather than seeing them run ragged for the glory of a foreign university, is important in recapturing Jamaica's identity in sport.
Herb Elliot, a Jamaican member of the International Amateur Athletics Federation's medical and anti-doping commission, noted it was time for a change. "NCAA scouts come here in droves to recruit, but our athletes often come back [from four years at U.S. universities] tired and mediocre."
There's a national and personal pride that comes with success, said Bolt, who has a legacy of starring in Jamaica's Boys and Girls high-school championships. He regularly returns as a celebrity, and that closeness to his athletic roots is noticed by the kids.
"There's a system in place now," said Kayon Raynor, a journalist with the Jamaica Observer. "Many more athletes are staying home and there are more trained coaches staying, encouraging the athletes. When it was known a few years ago that [sprinter] Asafa Powell was going to stay home, coaches were able to point at him and at his success to interest young athletes in staying back and putting U.S. college offers on the back burner. Once Asafa stayed, Bolt stayed. It's a copycat affair."
Training in Jamaica starts informally in the primary schools across the parishes and becomes seriously competitive at the high-school level. Sprinters recognize the Boys and Girls event as a premier track meet for raw talent. It used to be a magnet for U.S. recruiters, Raynor said. There were no sport scholarships in Jamaica and the U.S. schools offered an education that could be paid for by running.
Expatriate Jamaicans such as Donovan Bailey make the annual high-school meet a pilgrimage. Bailey was an Olympic gold medalist for Canada in 1996. A few years ago, he was at the Jamaican high-school championships and had his photo taken with both Powell and Bolt.
More sophisticated research and training takes place at the G.C. Foster college of sports in Spanish Town. Promotion of sports in the school system is complemented by private clubs, the most prominent being the MVP (Maximizing Velocity and Power) under Powell's coach, Stephen Francis. Because they can point to the names of high-profile members on the club roster, they often find themselves selling their talents to European promoters as a group.
"They're doing a lot of this because of some national pride," Elton Tucker of the Jamaica Gleaner said. "There are no federal money or rewards."
Bolt has been a perfect - and charismatic - example to the next generation of what can be accomplished staying in Jamaica. He is a homegrown talent from the farming hamlet of Sherwood Content in the parish of Trelawney in northwest Jamaica. His father, Wellesley, is a coffee production manager and his mother, Jennifer, a dressmaker.
Wellesley is certain "it's the Trelawney yams" that make his son run fast.
He played cricket as a youngster, but was also the tallest and fastest in his school. Coaches had to persuade him to pursue track because tall sprinters are so rare. He stands 6 foot 5, taller than Powell (6 foot 3) and Bailey (6 foot 1), and with his long stride can reel in runners who have better starts. His body type differs greatly from the old powder-keg profile of sprinters who tried to win a race on the power of the start.
Bolt has resisted the siren songs of U.S. schools. He has stayed at the University of Technology in Jamaica and trained with national coach Glen Mills, whose previous charges have included Raymond Stewart and former men's 100-metre world champion Kim Collins of Saint Kitts and Nevis.
UTECH developed from a two-year college to a full four-year university with 280 student athletes. It's still a work in progress, but the school is slowly finding sponsors for scholarship programs.
"We are running for the country and whether I'm first or second, I'll still be happy because both of us are going out there to represent," Powell said.
Powell, who set the world record six times but might never see it again, finished in fifth spot for his second consecutive Olympics. Powell ran 9.95 seconds. Six of the eight finalists broke the 10-second barrier.
He and Bolt laughed and walked together in the bowels of the Bird's Nest between rounds of the 100.
If Bolt's dominance rubbed anyone the wrong way, it wasn't apparent. Praise and goodwill seemed universal. Or maybe it was just
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