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- Tom Fordyce
- 23 Aug 08, 03:52 PM
Great Britain might have owned the Laoshan Velodrome and Michael Phelps the Water Cube, but down here at the Bird's Nest, it's been Jamaica all the way.
The sprint events at these Olympics were billed as a straight battle between the USA (population 303m) and the Caribbean island (2.8m).
Battle? It ended up as an almighty spanking. At the close of play, the scoreline read USA nil, Jamaica five.
Jamaica cleaned up. Usain took care of the men's 100m and 200m. Shelly-Ann Fraser led home a 1-2-3 in the 100m and Veronica Campbell-Brown won the 200m in the fastest time by a woman in ten years. Usain and Asafa smashed the world record in the 4x100m, and if Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart hadn't stuffed up their changeover, the women would have made it six gold medals from six.
For the first time since they boycotted the 1980 Olympics, the US went home without a single sprint gold.
So what's the secret behind Jamaica's success?
According to the country's sports minister Olivia Grange, Jamaica gets a jump on its rivals right from the start.
"I always talk about the triple T - tradition, talent and training," she says.
"We have an extremely good school system. In our primary schools, physical education is mandatory, and we actually start competing from early childhood. We have our prep school championships, primary school championships, our secondary school championships."
Even before that, the gene pool in Jamaica is predisposed to producing powerful, explosive athletes.
"There are a lot of fast-twitch fibres in Jamaica," says BBC commentator Steve Cram.
"If the talent pool is of high standard, then you don't necessarily need huge numbers of people involved.
"If you then have a competitive environment in which to develop that talent, and you can keep the most promising kids running track and not lose them to other sports, like football, cricket or basketball, then you're in a good position.
"Contrast that with the situation in Britain, where we struggle to keep kids with pace, strength and power involved in athletics."
Jamaica also has a sporting culture dominated by athletics. Bolt, Powell and Campbell-Brown were already the biggest sporting stars on the island, even before their deeds in Beijing.
"Like the USA is noted for basketball, we are noted with track and field," says Grange.
"For this Olympics, we've put up big screens in the towns and heavily-populated areas so everyone can watch. Everybody has just stopped working to watch the races. It's a great moment in time for us."
Jamaica's sprint heritage stretches back way before these Olympics, through names like Merlene Ottey, Ray Stewart, Don Quarrie and Herb McKenley.
Two former 100m champions were born on the island too, before emigrating overseas as children - Linford Christie (St Andrew) and Donovan Bailey (Manchester). If you include Ben Johnson (Falmouth), Jamaican-born sprinters have crossed the line first in four of the last six 100m Olympic finals.
Mike Fennell, president of the Jamaican Olympic Association, says: "Jamaica is a small island, and we'll always see emigration as a major activity - but these days the majority of our top athletes are home-grown and home-trained and home-developed.
"We're also getting better prepared, both in terms of individual coaches and how we put the team together and create our Olympic camp.
"This year, we moulded them together as a team. The team management have been excellent, helping everyone to bond success."
In Beijing, Jamaica's cause has undoubtedly been helped by the poor performances of the US team, particularly by the two sprint relay teams dropping their baton.
The one-off genius of Bolt has also made a huge difference.
Beyond that, the sprinters have benefited from training together at home, pushing each other on and working under the same professional coaches.
Powell and Sherone Simpson, for example, both train under Stephen Francis's MVP club, a group that also includes 400m silver medallist Sherika Williams.
"There's a comparison to be drawn with Kenya and its distance runners," says Cram.
"Great athletes tend to develop around other great athletes. It's very rare to find someone develop into a world-class performer on their own."
There have been concerns in some quarters, not least from UK Sport's anti-doping team about the level of drug-testing Jamaican athletes are exposed to at home.
The country has only just set up its own national anti-doping agency, despite promising to do so in 2005, and decided to opt out of the Wada-approved Caribbean Regional Anti-Doping Organisation.
Fennell decries such rumours as "ill-informed".
"We have had an anti-doping programme for a very long time, we were one of the earliest signatures to the Wada convention. We've had a little delay in terms of our national anti-doping programme, but that has in no way affected the programme we have in place for our elite athletes.
"There has always been a strong programme for high-performance athletes, and that will continue.
"Without naming names, some of our athletes here have been tested three times in four days. To my mind that's ridiculous. That's not an anti-doping programme - that's harassment."
Fennell is also confident that Jamaica can repeat the success of their Beijing performances in London in four years time, even if the US team manages to raise its game.
"Obviously what the competition does has an impact on our success, but you have to remember that we've had three world records in all of this," he says.
"Let them come - it will excite the crowd a little more."
For new 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser, however, there's another key factor in the team's success - one that no other country is likely to be able to replicate.
"Jamaican food," she said after her win. "A lot of yam, banana and dumplings produce top three."
Tom Fordyce is a BBC Sport journalist covering a wide range of events in Beijing. Our FAQs should answer any questions you have.