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| AFP Photo - Oliver Morin |
During the Olympics, the excitement I felt when I saw the Jamaican green, yellow and black turned to dismay. Keep in mind, my favorite movie is Cool Runnings. No seriously, I've watched that movie at least 30 times. Not that a movie about a bobsled team tells you everything about a country and it's culture, but it's always made me root for the Jamaican athletes. How could I, of all people, start hating on Jamaica?
Well, when the country that you care deeply about (USA! USA! USA!) loses constantly to an island nation consisting of 2.9 million people, that has somehow produced six of the ten fastest men (I'm counting Donovan Bailey) and four of the ten fastest women on the planet, you start to get a little salty. Honestly, I really have nothing to complain about. The USA consistently peforms well in the sprints (which I'm defining as the 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m relay), and even though we have fallen on some hard times, many countries would kill for America's sprinting history. However, being the mega patriot that I am, it hurt my ego that we were unable to find anyone to beat this inexplicable Jamaican juggernaut. Jamaica has a very nice history in the sprints, but they have started to turn up the heat in the last four Olympic Games. Beginning in Sydney, the Jamaicans have won 24 of a possible 72 sprint medals. They won 16 medals, no shame there, in the Olympics preceding Sydney. That's a pretty incredible improvement. Now while this may just be a "golden generation" of Jamaican sprinters, something has clearly changed in the training structure down there. Normally this would be the point where I rant about how some of these international athletes are improving at American colleges and training centers, but in regards to the Jamaicans, it's not a strong argument. While Veronica Campbell-Brown attended an American university, other Jamaican stars like Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, Asafa Powell and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce never competed at the NCAA level. I'm also not going to accuse the Jamaicans of doping. Every country has athletes that are doping and until I get some solid evidence, as naive as it might be, I'm gonna give these guys and gals the benefit of the doubt. Apparently, the Jamaicans have finally figured out how to develop their immense sprinting talent, which has to be a pretty scary proposition for the rest of the world.
With all of this Jamaican dominance, Carmelita Jeter might as well have been pointing at me when she crossed the finish line in the women's 4 x 100m relay, because the US team stomped my doubts and the Jamaicans. It was such a far cry from the rest of the sprints, where after Jamaican victories in the men's and women's 100m and a sweep of the medals in the men's 200, I was starting to get a little upset. Thank God for Allyson Felix and her beautiful stride because I might have started going crazy if the Jamaicans had won all of the individual sprint golds. While the US looked to have the better team on paper going into the final, they were not heavy favorites by any means. My celebration after that relay ranked somewhere between LeBron's three vs Spain and David Boudia's final dive in my top ten "chest beating" moments of the Games. The whole team put on great performances, including three very solid baton exchanges, an area that had plagued US teams in the past.
Jeter's, and to a lesser extent, my reaction to the victory confirmed one thing, this rivalry the USA has with Jamaica means something. It's great for USA Track and Field to have a rival like Jamaica. It will push both nations to produce great sprinters, which will in turn create great races, like the men's 100m final. This may fuel more interest in track and field, a sport trying to rise above the stigma of doping scandals. Hopefully it does, because trying to overcome the Jamaican sprint machine over the next few years is going to be really fun. Come on, who doesn't like a good rival?
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