Page 47 - Team TTO PARIS 2024
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The tension and anticipation are   It is in the mixed zone that          T&T’s Hasley Crawford won Gold
            thick before the race starts and   we get to hear from the               in the showpiece Men’s 100
            the buzz lasts long after. There’s                                       Metres at the 1976 Olympics in
            a brief hush before the starter’s   athletes from our small              Montreal, leading a Caribbean
            pistol. Then, a kinetic explosion.  Caribbean islands who have           one-two with Donald Quarrie of
                                             punched above the weight                Jamaica (Silver), who also Gold
            I was fortunate to witness the   of our nations - Kirani James           in the Men’s 200m.
            dual flowering of Usain Bolt and   of Grenada. Keshorn Walcott
            Shelly-Ann Fraser.  She wasn’t   of T&T. Shaunae Miller-Uibo             Caribbean born athletes have
            Mrs Fraser-Price then, but a           of the Bahamas.                   delivered for their adopted
            small-in-stature 21-year-old,                                            nations. T&T’s McDonald Bailey a
            smiling shyly behind her dental braces.             Bronze in the Men’s 100 for Great Britain. Jamaica’s Linford
                                                                Christie in 1992 and Donovan Bailey in 1996, for Great
            Usain was neither small nor shy. I remember Costello,   Britain and Canada respectively.
            years before Beijing in a conversation in the BBC Sport
            newsroom, speaking in awe of a Jamaican teenaged “man   Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price, Shericka Jackson and Elaine
            mountain” who was going to be the next big thing in the   Thompson-Herah are the latest in a long line of excellent
            100 and 200 metres. Bolt lapped up the attention, mugging   Jamaican women athletes. Their illustrious predecessors
            for the cameras, doing his now famous Lightning Bolt pose   included Merlene Ottey, Veronica Campbell-Brown and
            after an inevitable victory.                        Grace Jackson.

            Striking gold in the Mixed Zone                     I went to my first Olympic games, in Athens in 2004, as a
            I went to Beijing as a freelance reporter for BBC and other   tourist. In the stadium, I found myself sitting next to a
            outlets. I got my athlete interviews in the Olympic Village   couple of Slovenian guys. They couldn’t stop gushing about
            (I needed to arrange entry with the teams’ management   Ottey, who became a naturalised Slovenian and represented
            beforehand) and in the mixed zone – a kind of gauntlet of   that Balkan nation in Athens.
            reporters that athletes exiting the tracks must navigate. It
            starts with TV rights holders trackside, and ends with the   Beyond the Olympic track
            print reporters.                                    There’s been Caribbean success beyond track and field.
                                                                T&T’s first Olympic medal came in weightlifting – Rodney
            Bolt, Fraser-Price are not the only gold medal winners we   Wilkes in the Featherweight division in London in 1948.
            got to interview in the Mixed Zone. Marc Burns of Trinidad   Guyana’s only Olympic medal was won by Michael Anthony
            and Tobago was another. I caught up with him after one of   Parris in Moscow in 1980, bronze in the Bantamweight
            the heats; and years before events were to elevate him and   division. Parris won’t care one bit that American athletes
            the other three members of the T&T 4x100 relay quartet to   were not allowed to compete in Moscow, since the US
            gold after the eventual disqualification of Jamaican Nesta   boycotted the games because of the Soviet invasion of
            Carter from Bolt’s team.                            Afghanistan in 1979. Soviet athletes were to effect a
                                                                revenge boycott of the 1984 games in Los Angeles.
            It is in the mixed zone that we get to hear from the athletes
            from our small Caribbean islands who have punched   What has happened since then is that the number of
            above the weight of our nations - Kirani James of Grenada.   Olympics sports has grown, and I would like to see
            Keshorn Walcott of T&T. Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the   Caribbean Olympic Associations try to get our athletes to
            Bahamas.                                            compete in more non-traditional sports. There’s good
                                                                representation beyond track and field; in boxing, swimming
            The mixed zone evolved over time as TV and other forms   and cycling, for example. T&T cyclist Nicholas Paul is a
            of media coverage expanded, but Caribbean Olympic   serious medal prospect.
            excellence has been a thing for decades. Jamaica’s Arthur
            Wint won gold in the men’s 400m at the 1948 London   It’s fashionable to disdain comparatively newly added
            Olympics, setting an Olympic record and beating his   sports such as BMX Cycling, but we should be exploring
            countryman Herb McKenley in the process. Trinidadian   every avenue to add to our medal count. We the sports
            Wendell Mottley won two medals in Tokyo in 1964, first an   journalists should be asking our Olympic team leaders how
            indivudual silver and bronze in the 4x400m along with his   they go about doing this. Meantime, our chances in Paris
            colleagues Edwin Skinner, Kent Bernard and Edwin    look good in our traditional areas of competition.
            Roberts.

                                                                Orin Gordon is T&T based Media Consultant. He has worked in media in the UK for the BBC



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