TIME FOR J’CAN TRACK FANS TO REGAIN PERPSECTIVE

For the past four and a half years Jamaica’s sprinters have dominated the world of track and field. Over the past two Olympic Games Jamaica has won 10 Olympic gold medals, more than we had won in all Olympiads since 1948. Usain Bolt has won six of those gold medals and has set a number of world records along the way.

In May 2008, Bolt broke the 100-metre world record at Adidas Grand Prix in New York and has lowered it several times since. That 9.72 in New York was lowered to 9.69 in Beijing later that summer and then in Berlin the following year Bolt lowered his own record even further to an astonishing 9.58s.

To add to those six Olympic gold medals he has won over the past two Olympics Bolt has also won five World Championship gold medals since he finished second to Tyson Gay at the world championships in Osaka back in 2007. Had it not been for a false start in Daegu in 2011 in the 100-metre finals, Bolt may very well have won six World Championship gold medals.  And even though he wasn’t able to repeat as world champion, the 100-metre title remained in Jamaica as Bolt’s teammate Yohan Blake claimed the title to become the youngest man ever to do so.

Blake also won a pair of silver medals in London last year and Jamaica swept the medals in the 200 metre sprint for the first time ever as Warren Weir claimed the bronze medal in a personal best 19.84s.

On the women’s side, Jamaica led by Shelly Ann Frazer Pryce claimed a historic 1-2-2 finish in Beijing. Kerron Stewart and Sherone Simpson claiming those unprecedented double silver medals. Meanwhile Veronica Campbell, arguably Jamaica’s greatest female sprinter, became only the second woman to repeat as Olympic women’s 200-metre champion.

The world championships in 2009 were similar with Frazer Pryce winning gold and Kerron Stewart copping silver in the fastest time ever run for second place (10.75). Jamaica also won the women’s sprint relay making up for the botched baton exchange in Beijing that cost them an extra gold.

Melaine Walker also added her name to the list of gold medalists winning in Beijing and Berlin and staked her claim as one of the best ever by clocking the second fastest time ever run over the 400-metre hurdles.

All these amazing performances have made Jamaicans proud. It has also caused some of us to become ridiculously detached from reality. All of a sudden our athletes are not supposed to lose. They are also not allowed to get injured. From Oral Tracey to the man on the street, after Yohan Blake tore his hamstring at the Utech Classic in April, word was out was that the Beast deliberately pulled up because he realized that he was unable to catch Kim Collins, the eventual winner of the men’s 100 metres that night. This happens to be the same Kim Collins who has not broken 10-seconds in a few years; the same Kim Collins, who was leading in the World Championship finals in Daegu before Blake caught and ran by him to claim his first world title.

This is the Yohan Blake, we’re talking about. A man who has run 9.69s into a -0.01 wind making him the second fastest man of all time; pulling out of a race that was only half-way through a race because he thought he couldn’t win. Ha!

In May this year Bolt picked up a grade-one hamstring strain in training prior to the Jamaica Invitational on May 4. A few days before the May meet, Bolt’s camp issued a statement explaining that as a precaution he was pulling out of the meet. In any other country in the world, the statement would have been accepted. People would have been disappointed, yes, but they would also have understood that these things happen in sports. Athletes get injured and because of those injuries the athletes and their management teams make decisions in the best interests of their athletes.

Here in Jamaica the conspiracy theorists came out in full force. Bolt is afraid of being beaten. Bolt didn’t want to run in Jamaica because of money issues (like the organizers in the Cayman where he ran a few days later could have paid him his US$300,000 fee he commands in Europe,  after the organizers of the JII were not able to). People forget that Bolt has run at the JII before and loves performing before his home crowd. However to some people it is incredulous that Bolt could have recovered from a slight strain in four days well enough to compete in the Cayman Islands where he eked out a close win over Kemar Bailey-Cole.

Then just this week on Facebook I heard this gem about why Bolt lost to Tyson Gay in Stockholm in 2010. That season Bolt had been plagued by a bad back (scoliosis) and had been running wounded for most of the non-championship season. It was only a matter of time before it caught up with him. It just so happened that he eventually lost to Gay in Stockholm the place where he last lost back in 2008 before becoming Olympic champion. But this genius on Facebook suggested that Bolt deliberately lost to Gay; absolute nonsense.

Also this week on a track and field website, a poster reacting to Hansle Parchment’s world-leading 13.05 win in Oregon at the recent Prefontaine Classic, proclaims that Jamaica is dominating the men’s sprint hurdles. Really? This was Parchment’s best time ever but does it mean he will dominate sprint hurdling? David Oliver, Jason Richardson, and world-record holder Aries Merritt might have something to say about that. The world record, lest we forget is 12.80 and Parchment is yet to break 13 seconds. We all want the lanky hurdler to do well and eventually be the best but everything happens in due time.

People, we need to get back to reality. Sports occurs in cycles. Right now Jamaica rules the sprints but it wont last forever. Enjoy it but understand that even when we are on top, our athletes will lose just because they are human and other athletes from other countries train just as hard. Our athletes will also lose because someone will come along who will be better on the day. We also need to understand that our athletes get injured and heal like everyone else. Getting hurt doesn’t mean anything but that they’re hurt.

When Asafa Powell pulls up injured he is hurt for real. Yes, we all know that the former world record holder has an issue delivering his best at major championships but when he pulls up lame at an All Comers meet, it’s not because he fears anybody in the race, especially when no one else in that race has broken 10 seconds in their lives.

We need to remember the fact that between 1948 and 2004 we only won 7 gold medals at the Olympics and after a while it might take us another 20 years to win as many as we did in Beijing back in 2008. 2012 was a success but we only won four gold medals. Use that information to put things into perspective. Enjoy our dominance now because another lean spell might be even closer than you think.