In 2014 an agency called Jamaica Sport was launched to explore opportunities for sports tourism in the country. The aim then was to sell ‘Brand Jamaica’ worldwide and to maximise benefits which could be gained through commercial and other activities.Not much has been heard from Jamaica Sport since that time but the desire to push sports tourism, based on the exploits of the country’s sportsmen and sportswomen, remains very strong.
Six years earlier, in 2008, Jamaica, with stars such as Usain Bolt, Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce , Melaine Walker and Veronica Campbell had delighted track and field fans locally and in the diaspora as well as others across the world, with their outstanding performances at the Beijing Olympic Games. Bolt produced world record runs in the 100 and 200 metres and then led the men to another world mark in the sprint relay. Fraser won the women’s 100m and Jamaica completed a sweep of the top three spots when Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart tied for second while Campbell retained her 200m crown and Walker won the 400m hurdles gold. It was the start of eight years of dominance by the island’s track stars.
Jamaica had been winning medals at the Olympics since 1948 when Arthur Wint won the country’s first gold medal and had produced a number of great sprinters Herb McKenley, Dionne Hemmings , Donald Quarrie and Marlene Ottey, since then but never before has the dominance been so profound. The Beijing performance heightened interest in Jamaica across the globe and led many to ponder the question how could such a small nation be producing so many world beaters.
Excelling in sport at the highest levels has always been part of the DNA of Jamaicans. While not reaching the levels of excellence of someone like Bolt, Jamaicans have performed with distinction in other sports such as cricket, boxing, football, basketball, netball and swimming.
George Headley, one of the stars of the early West Indies Test teams, remains one of Jamaica’s and the cricketing world’s greatest ever batsmen. Fast bowler Courtney Walsh once held the world record for wickets in Tests while current star Chris Gayle is generally known as the world’s leading T20 batsman.
Middleweight boxer Mike McCallum, a champion in three weight divisions, was one of the world’s best in the 1980s and 1990s after being inspired by post independence stars such as Bunny Grant and Percy Hayles.
Jamaica, coached by Brazilian Rene Simoes, reached the World Cup in France in 1998 for the first time. Current head coach, Theodore Whitmore, was one of the standout players after scoring twice in a 2-1 win over Japan to register the island’s first victory on world football’s biggest stage. Raheem Sterling, a key member of English Premier League champions Manchester City, was born in St Andrew just two years before that historic World Cup qualification.
In basketball, Jamaica-born Patrick Ewing is a NBA Hall of Famer while locally the sport has gained popularity rapidly with the game, like football and cricket, being played in numerous communities across the island.
Netball, the main female sport, has been spreading its wings and two of Jamaica’s top shooters, Jhaniele Fowler-Reid and Romelda Aiken are hogging the spotlight in Australia
and New Zealand, the world’s two leading two leading netball nations.
Alia Atkinson, a Jamaican who went to the 2004 Athens Olympics at the tender age of 15, is now the leading black swimmer after becoming the first person of colour to hold a world swimming record.
The main task ahead now is to not only maximise likely benefits through sports tourism but to provide the facilities for continued success in those sports in which the island has done well in the past and to spread the vast amount of talent available into other sporting disciplines.
President of the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA), attorney Christopher Samuda, came into office last year and has pledged to diversify Jamaica’s participation at future Games. Football has received special attention already, as the JOA, in partnership with the Jamaica Football Federation, look to qualify for the Olympic football competition for the first time.
Since the country’s participation for the first time in 1948, Jamaica has won 78 medals (22 gold, 35 silver and 21 bronze) at the Olympics.
A whopping 77 of these have come in track and field. Cycling is the only other sport with a medal after David Weller pocketed a bronze at the 1980 Moscow Games in the 1000 metres time trial.
If Jamaica is to make a success of diversification in sports there has to be vast improvement in infrastructure. For all its success since 1948 and the enormous popularity of the annual Boys and Girls’ Championships, Jamaica has not been able to build what is considered to be a proper track and field stadium. The existing National Stadium located in Kingston was built close to 60 years ago and is now, to say the least, outdated. No other stadia designed to meet international standards have been built either in Kingston or elsewhere in the country.
Diversification can also be achieved by the spreading of talent and the building of facilities for other sports. A lot of this natural talent now concentrated in track and field could be directed to swimming and perhaps tennis by building public parks with swimming pools and tennis courts if Jamaica is to be successful in bidding for international events like the Commonwealth Games for which it has declared an interest. A bidding committee has been established to look into the possibility of hosting major international events.