Jamaica's gold medal potential

As I watched the World Championships and saw us not medalling in events we were expecting to, I really did not feel as disappointed as the many individuals whose comments I have read and heard about. Some of the comments were nothing less than ridiculous, blaming the athletes, as if someone “put the medals down for us” prior to the event.
What I witnessed was a set of young athletes who went and did their best; and, fully understanding what goes into the preparation for such competitions, I was extremely proud of all of them.

I myself, being someone who engages in endurance sporting events and competes occasionally, understand what the body goes through and the pain one feels, and the necessity to be precise with your preparation. So when I heard Blake mention that the organisers had them waiting for 45 minutes in cold conditions, I thought to myself that this is what happens when you put people in charge who have no idea about sports, apart from what they read.

It always amazes me that professional sports is one of the only professions where one doesn't need experience to be an administrator. Many times people in administration are people who have never competed or played in any sporting event.

Over the past 12 years, we have had a cadre of athletes, led by Usain Bolt, who have all made Jamaica proud. In fact, as Leighton Levy pointed out, as far as historical records can show, no other country (especially given our size) has dominated athletics globally the way we have done.

So nuff-nuff respect to Bolt, Asafa, Yohan, Shelly-Ann, VCB, Carter, Melaine, and all those other athletes who competed at the highest level for us over the past 12 years. They have made Jamaica extremely proud, and have helped to place us as a global brand, just like the late great Bob Marley did.

In fact, it was the individual and team performances of these athletes that have given Jamaicans hope (eg 1998 World Cup qualification), and not the people who have been elected to do so. Our greatest hope and inspiration have come from our athletes, musicians, and business people, while our greatest letdowns have come from our politics and those elected to lead us.

But even so, the politicians are the first to pounce on the opportunity for popularity from these individual Jamaicans, often posing with them for pictures or having welcome-home celebrations or parties. And these Jamaicans deserve all of that and more for making us all proud to be Jamaicans, despite the mayhem and bad reputation created by our crime and inefficient bureaucracy.

My greatest disappointment with the Championships was not the individual performance of our athletes on the track, but what has been reported about the quarrelling in the camp. I am personally fine with seeing our athletes do their best and not medalling, as even if they make a final, remember they are amongst the top eight in the world, and many of those who criticise them can't even go through a training routine with them, and have no idea about what sacrifices they have made to get there.

My other disappointment is that the younger athletes do not seem to have the mental toughness that I see in the now older athletes, such as what we saw in the spectacular feat by Bert Cameron at the 1984 Olympics. That mental toughness is what most times makes the greatest difference, as one thing we forget as a country many times is that while we are celebrating our victories, other countries are planning and preparing to take our crown away.

This was the case with West Indies cricket, which we once dominated. I was going to Sabina Park from I was eight to watch the great Rolls Royce of West Indian bowling Mikey Holding with the other three hit men in the pace-bowling attack, and the finesse of people like Viv Richards, as he thrilled us, making test cricket have all the excitement of one-day cricket.

While we were on top, however, countries like Australia were planning a takeover with their cricket programmes at home. And as usual, our cricket was hit by administrators who didn't understand what was needed to sustain our dominance.

And so, just like athletics, or even after we qualified for the World Cup, there was little if any infrastructure investment made. If you look at the areas where we have or have had a competitive advantage, we find that most of the investments made in infrastructure have been done by private individuals, such as MVP or Racers. There have been few if any strategic infrastructure investments made by the government, even though we are a world leader in many of these areas.

The fact is that we have been celebrating Bob Marley, and his value-added for Jamaica, but wouldn't it have made sense to make some serious infrastructural investment around his community (Trench Town) as a major tourist attraction? We see where the Bob Marley museum was the first place Obama visited, which shows the attractiveness of Marley, but still we have failed to capitalise on this icon.

When we qualified for the World Cup in 1998, that was certainly an opportunity for some proper infrastructure investment in football fields across the island. The Reggae Boyz were globally recognised, just like the bobsled team.

Over the past 12 years, we have dominated athletics, and had the fortune of the greatest sprinter ever, and the man with the most sub-10-second times. Yet, has there been any strategic investments in track facilities, or even serious investments in GC Foster College, where we agree that much of the expertise that lay the foundation has come from?

And outside of sports, I go back to tourism, which earns us more than US$2 billion per annum, but we allow the degradation of the infrastructure in the tourism capital, and the rampant indiscipline to exist, allowing for example the traffic lights at the end of the Hip Strip to become an unofficial shopping mall.

Jamaica has true gold medal potential as a country, which can go way beyond individual accomplishments, which is what has built our brand. We have the potential to be fully recognised as the greatest country on earth, but we must overcome our governance challenges and take deliberate actions to capitalise on our areas of advantage and success, not just through celebratory activities, but investment in our people and infrastructure.