Is Jamaica An Overrated Sports Giant?

[Islandman]

The best evidence that we are no sporting giants outside of track and field is our Olympic record. Outside of track and field how many Olympic medals have we won?

O-N-E, in an Olympic games that was boycotted. We hardly even produce medal contenders in the other sports these days.

[Assasin]

We play a major role in wining the world cup cricket. That counts?
Win medal and alway perform good in netball

For our size we are huge. How many medals China have outside of gynastics?

[Peter R]

We have good individual athletes and perform reasonably well at some team sports in the small pond that is the Caribbean; notably as mentioned Football, Cricket and Netball. In Swimming, Field Hockey, Tennis, Basketball, Volleyball, Table Tennis, Cycling we have nothing to shout about at the regional level much less at wider international level. At least if we have world beaters I'm not hearing about them.

Outside of T&F on the world stage... we have a long way to go.

I do believe that crime has an impact on sports; I'm not on the ground in JA but what I observe here in T&T is that whenever a school team I'm involved with wants to play schools from certain areas, their coach's concerns ALWAYS revolve around getting the boys home before a certain hour, because after that they are subject to holdup and bullets flying.

Which the indicates that players who live in crime-ridden areas have training and playing time curtailed.

The lack of facilities etc. is also a big factor.

[Stonigut]

Wicked argument my brethrin, but is funny I started looking up the actual figures and from back in the early 60's into the best part of the 70" for Ja the gap has been consistent Bah has consistently mainted a four times multiple of Ja GDP (PPP).Doesn't throw that argument out but it is not as strong as I would have thought.

[Gamma]

our record in olympics supasses overachievement!!! and if that is what is used to judge everything else then that is an unfortunate standard but then yes....we are overrated in everything else as a sporting power.

we have won no world cup football trophies, no netball championships, no-thing! NOTHING!

[Islandman]

Yes our record in Olympics is spectacular, but because of our spectacular (or super spectacular) performance in ONE sport. Outside of that sport we are quite ordinary in Olympic performances.

Its not a matter of expecting other sports to match T&F , its that were it not for T&F we would never hear our name at the Olympics. For netball and cricket we are known for producing world class talent. Not so for other sports.

So basically I am saying I agree with Historian that it would be exaggerating to call Jamaica a sporting giant on the world level. Not enough depth outside of T&F.

Cuba now, I would more consider a world sporting giant.They have not won many world cup trophies either, but they produce competitive teams at the world level in multiple sports. Volleyball, baseball, boxing, T&F to name a few.

[Gamma]

ok well see my question above....if it is world sports then i would not say that we are....nor would i expect us to be, quite frankly...BUT our name comes up with great regularity.....why?

[Islandman]

I would say that in general at the world level we perform better than what would be expected given our size and economic status.

And by the way, I don't necessarily think there is anything wrong with a small country concentrating on one or two sports that they think they will do well in. So this is not a knock on our achievements at all. But we have fallen off somewhat at the regional level in the minor sports.

[Peter R]

The truth is Karl...IMHO talent is over-rated; we're NOT unique in that perspective...talent abounds EVERYWHERE; we all would like to think we're uniquely gifted but proper programmes are what really works, even for those without "talent".

[myYout]

overrated yuh a dream or a hab a nightmare, dere is no odah island per capita weh acheive more dan wi inna sports. Suh yuh a try a likkle ting but it nah guh wuk.

[Historian]

Not Necessarily True....

overrated yuh a dream or a hab a nightmare, dere is no odah island per capita weh acheive more dan wi inna sports. Suh yuh a try a likkle ting but it nah guh wuk.

Get a calculator and do an online search of the almost 30 islands of the Caribbean. Trust me on this when I say that your statement above (which I've highlighted) is not necessarily an accurate one. Let's look, for example, at track and field's highest stage. Do you realize that, on a per capita basis, we would most likely not be ranked at number one in the Caribbean in terms of track and field medals won at the Beijing Olympic Games? And this is so despite our amazing, incredible results.

But like I said, do a little research on this small matter....

[Baddaz]

ok historian... i haven't done the research but i would think that the bahamas has a slight edge on us in a per capita basis, if we are only speaking about the olympic games - i must have read that somewhere...

however, i still think that our achievement in SPORT (broadly) is miles above all other islands in the caribbean...

i will also add that rather than focussing on the negatives, it would be better to raise the positives of our accomplishments considering that we are ahead of MOST larger countries in terms of population and resources in athletics and SPORT...

although the bahamas (guessing here) might be ahead of jamaica in the per capita gold medal, the collective world doesn't consider them a track and field powerhouse... that distinction goes to jamaica...

aside: i will do the research and find out who is the leader in per capita gold medals at the olympics...

[Gamma]

i have a funny feeling there will be some surprises there.

[Islandman]

I know the Bahamas was ahead of us after before the last Olympics per capita in terms of overall Olympic medals, not sure if they still are after our rich harvest at the last games!

[Islandman]

Based on this webpage it seems like they still have us beat in overall medals.


This tally includes winter and summer Olympics but for the JA/Bah comparison should hold for just the summer games as well.

http://users.skynet.be/hermandw/olymp/reloly.html

I think we are ahead of them per capita in terms of strictly gold medals now. Don't they only have one?