Sports in Jamaica – Ambition, Discipline and Talent!
From Athletics and Boxing to Swimming!
Watersports
Did you know? In recent decades, Jamaica has had two top female swimmers. Janelle Atkinson, for example, was the second best swimmer in Latin America, after Claudia Poll (Costa Rica), in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Miss Atkinson, a graduate of the Bolles School (Jacksonville, Florida ), placed fourth in the women’s 400 m freestyle at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. At the 1999 Pan American Games in North America, she won three silver medals. Fifteen years ago, in 1984, Island swimmer Andrew Phillips finished sixth in the men’s individual 200-meter medley -which consists of the butterfly, breaststroke, backstroke and freestyle- at the Games of the XXIII Olympiad in America, ahead of Nikolai Klapkarek and Ralf Diegel (both from Germany).
Boxing
Did you know that Jamaican boxer Barry Foster captured the bronze medal in the lightweight division at the IV Pan American Games in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1963? A year ago, the national boxing team, led by Roland Holmes, won two gold medals at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Kingston, Jamaica.
Cycling
Did you know that cyclist David Weller won a bronze medal at the Games of the XXII Olympiad in the early 1980s; The Caribbean’s first Olympic medal since the competition was established in 1896. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Weller placed sixth. He began to make a name for himself in cycling in the mid-1970s when he was runner-up at the Pan American Games in Mexico City, behind Canada’s Joselyn Lovell (gold medalist). In the late 1970s, he also won a silver medal at the VIII Pan American Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico. For that performance, Weller qualified for the Summer Olympic Games in the Soviet Union in 1980. During the years of 1975 to 1984, this incredible athlete became one of the most respected cyclists in the Western Hemisphere.
Deon Hemmings
Did you know that Deon Hemmings became the first hurdler from Latin America to capture an Olympic title when she won the women’s 400m hurdles at the Summer Olympics in the United States in the mid-1990s? Today Miss Hemmings, like Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt, is a popular figure on the Island, one of the most successful Olympic nations in the world. The athlete Hemmings was born on September 10, 1968 in Saint Ann, Jamaica.
Soccer
Did you know that soccer is one of the nation’s favorite pastimes? Towards the end of the 20th century, the Island won the right to compete in the FIFA World Cup in Paris, France.