After years in the shadow of rival America, Jamaica has crushed the sprint events at the Olympics since 2008. The result of colossal training work on the island and feats of legendary athletes, from Usain Bolt to Elaine Thompson-Herah.
6 mins
There Jamaica, his reggae, his Rastafari movement… and his love for sprinting. In this country of 2.8 million inhabitants, running speed events are an art in their own right. In the fall of 2008, a few weeks after a superb harvest at the Beijing Games, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, gold medalist in China, simply summed it up: “ In Jamaica, we eat and sleep sprint. »
It is an understatement to say that the country owes much of its world renown in sport to athletics. Of his 88 medals gleaned at the Olympic Games since 1948, 87 come from athletics (the last was obtained in cycling). And of these 87 medals won in athletics, 71 came from sprint events.
The progress over the last sixteen years has been dazzling. After the great performances of the stainless Merlene Ottey in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, and those of Don Quarrie, the titles fell in cascade from 2008. From the Beijing Olympics to those of Tokyo in 2021, Jamaica has won 41 medals in athletics, including 33 in sprinting alone. Rewards which also result from an educational and sporting program totally dedicated to the cult of discipline on the island.
No need to go into exile anymore, Jamaica knows how to hatch its nuggets
In Jamaica, the junior championships generate extraordinary enthusiasm. Tens of thousands of spectators come to see young national talents, detected from a very young age and eager to shine in these “Boys and Girls Championships” where the competition is tough. The brands of sportswear have invested in a system designed for the emergence of tomorrow’s human rockets, as well as hedge specialists.
A shift was made at the beginning of the 2000s. There was no longer any question of the country’s talents being forced to go into exile to benefit from better monitoring. For a long time, it was common to see Jamaicans heading to Europe or North America, and more particularly the United States. In Uncle Sam’s country, universities and their scholarships appealed to young Caribbean athletes, who found them ideal grounds for progress. Some even ended up abandoning Jamaican nationality to represent other countries. Illustration with Linford Christie and Donovan Bailey, born in Jamaica but emigrated as children; the first was Olympic champion in the 100m in 1992 under the colors of the United Kingdom, and the second did the same in 1996 (with the world record to boot) representing Canada.
For several years, there is no need to leave Jamaica to hope to reach the summits. The country has equipped itself with renowned coaches and quality structures. All that was missing were a few gems to confirm the enormous Jamaican potential, shake the world of sprinting and push human limits.
Usain Bolt, the ultimate sprinter
In 2008, Jamaica’s best athletes made a splash at the Beijing Games. One of them in particular becomes a global star: Usain Bolt, very recent 100m world record breaker. At 1.95 m tall, “Lightning Bolt” does not meet sprint standards: he is very tall, as relaxed and facetious as he is sure of himself… And he is ready to swallow up everything. Usain Bolt electrifies the Beijing track in the 100m final. Untouchable, the one who is not yet 22 years old allows himself to celebrate his victory 30 meters from the finish and still beats the world record (9”69). In the process, Bolt also won gold in the 200m and beat the world record that Michael Johnson had held for sixteen years (19”30). It is the birth of a new stadium god, of the best sprinter in history. “ I’m number one! », boasts the fastest man in the world, far ahead of the Americans.
Among the women, the Jamaicans also crushed everything in the 100m and 200m in Beijing. In total, Jamaica pocketed eleven medals, including nine in the sprint events. The United States are stunned, having been accustomed to winning the lion’s share of the sprint for decades. And this is only the beginning of their troubles. A year later, at the World Championships in Berlin, Usain Bolt raised the 100m and 200m world records to unimaginable levels (9”58 and 19”19). In 2012, at the London Games, Jamaica, led by a stronger than ever Bolt and his lieutenant Yohan Blake, won thirteen medals, including eleven in the sprint. And in 2016, for his last Games, Usain Bolt further established his legend by becoming Olympic champion in the 100m and 200m for the third time in a row. Competition is only entitled to the few crumbs left by the terrors from Jamaica.
The scourge of doping, however, does not spare the country. As in the United States, many leading sprinters were pinned, such as Blake, Asafa Powell or Nesta Carter. The positive test for the latter also cost Bolt the gold medal in the 4x100m relay at the 2008 Olympics, withdrawn afterwards. A few hiccups therefore, but not enough to call into question Jamaican supremacy.
The United States is fighting back
For the ladies, after Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Veronica Campbell-Brown, Elaine Thompson-Herah took over in 2016 and 2021. During the Tokyo Games, and a few weeks after the event, the sprinter panicked the counters by coming within a hair of the controversial world records of the American Florence Griffith-Joyner, which date from 1988.
These latest exploits on the women’s side cannot, however, mask the end of Jamaica’s golden age in the sprint. After Bolt retired in 2017, no one really took up the mantle on the men’s side. The World Championships in recent years have shown a clear decline in performance on the men’s side. At the 2021 Olympics, behind the high performances of Thompson-Herah and Fraser-Pryce, the sprinters completely came back empty-handed.
The Americans, for their part, have regained momentum in recent years, with a leader, Noah Lyles, eagerly awaited in Paris. Is it time for revenge for the United States? In the French capital this summer, Jamaica will be challenged in the sprint, its Olympic garden for sixteen years.