Just how good is Jamaica on the track, and how come?
The extraordinary track heritage of the world’s first Grand Slam Track hosts.
When Grand Slam Track announced that its first Slam would be held in Kingston, Jamaica, it felt like a fitting launchpad for the revolutionary track league focused on the fastest Racers on the planet. What better starting point for the new festival of speed than this sprinting powerhouse?
With legends like Don Quarrie and Merlene Ottey, and more contemporary household names like Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, it is no secret that Jamaica is good at track. But do we know just how good? And how come this relatively small Caribbean Island became such a track giant?
As we gear up for the sport’s biggest innovation in decades to take off on the newly resurfaced Rekortan track at Kingston’s National Stadium, we take a closer look at the numbers and forces at play when it comes to Jamaica’s track success.
93 Olympic medals, 27 Golds and counting...
With the exception of a 1980 medal in cycling, every medal Jamaica has won in the Olympics has been in track and field. And there have been many.
With a total of 93 Olympic medals in the sport, Jamaica ranks 7th overall for the most medals and 8th for Olympic Golds (27). For a country with a population that is smaller than the population of most Olympic host cities, and that only began participating in the Olympics in 1948, this feat is even more extraordinary.
Jamaica’s Golden Period: Beijing 2008 to Rio 2016
Since Barcelona 1992, Jamaica has always placed among the top ten nations in terms of Olympic medals won in track and field but the period from Beijing 2008 to Rio 2016 was a golden age which began with Usain Bolt’s breakthrough Games.
Jamaica finished top three in Beijing, top two in London 2012 and top three again in Rio. In the last five Olympics, Jamaican female athletes have won 10 out of the 15 medals awarded in the Women's 100m, including four golds. They've also won four of the last six editions of the women's 200m.
Jamaica’s Olympic sprint and relay dominance
85 of the 93 medals Jamaican athletes have won in Olympic track and field come from sprint and relay events.
Taking the track sprinting disciplines alone, Jamaica often features on the podium for most medals ever won at the Olympics and even challenges the USA in disciplines like the women's 100m (where they are only four medals behind the US team on the all-time medal table) and 200m (trailing the US by two medals).
Jamaica ranks within the top three nations for World Championships
When it comes to World Athletics Championships (WCH) medals, only the USA and Kenya have more. Of Jamaica’s 149 medals, 40 are Golds securing them fourth place in the all-time Gold medal tally.
Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce hold the most medals at individual events of any athlete in the history of WCH and their country has placed in the top 10 for the most medals in every single edition of the WCH since its inception in 1983.
Jamaica’s speed carries indoors
The success continues indoors with Jamaican athletes clocking up 61 medals at the World Athletics Indoors Championships, 18 of which were Gold. As a ‘summer nation’, their standing as the 5th most decorated nation indoors is another example of the country punching far above the weight of its population and economy.
Explaining the Jamaican track and field phenomenon
Jamaica’s remarkable success on the track is powered by community, culture and Champs. Let us explain.
The community factor
With so few people for so many medals, people tend to know (or know someone that knows) an Olympic or World Championship medalist. Talent and success live close to home – within touching distance for aspiring athletes. This is a powerful motivator.
The cultural factor
Track and field is woven into the fabric of Jamaican culture. It rivals cricket and football in popularity and very few nations place as much importance on the sport as Jamaica. Modern winning faces like Bolt and Fraser-Pryce are powerful symbols of unity for the nation, but the story has much older roots.
The Olympic legends, Arthur Wint and Herb McKenley
It all began with Arthur Wint whose 400m Gold at the 1948 Games in London secured Jamaica’s first Olympic medal.
Four years later, in Helsinki, he was part of the 4x400m team that secured Jamaica’s first ever Olympic relay gold, setting a world record in the process that was unbroken for the next eight years. His 4x400m teammate, Herb McKenley, who became a 4x Olympic medalist, went on to dedicate his life to developing Jamaican track and field as the coach of the National team and President of the Jamaican Athletics Association.
“55% of all Olympic medals and approximately two thirds of all WCH Jamaican medals have been won by women, even though that tally only started in 1980 with Ottey.”
Merlene Ottey blazes a trail for Jamaica’s female track stars
Jamaican women’s Olympic history took longer to get started, but when it did, it flew. Merlene Ottey’s 200m bronze in Moscow 1980 was Jamaica’s first women’s Olympic medal and the springboard for a remarkable and unique track career.
Ottey went on to win nine Olympic medals, 14 medals at World Championships and seven medals at Indoor World Championships making her the #1 athlete of any gender in terms of individual medals at these major events combined. Her 1993 Indoor 200m World Record still stands today.
55% of all Olympic medals and approximately two thirds of all WCH Jamaican medals have been won by women, even though that tally only started in 1980 with Ottey.
The Champs Factor
These heroes from the past (and many more that followed) have something in common.
They all competed at ‘Champs’.
The annual Inter-Secondary Schools Boys and Girls Championships is at the heart of Jamaican success in track and field. It is considered one of the largest and most competitive junior competitions in the world, hosted at the National Stadium, Kingston in front of crowds that can top 30,000.
This system is one of the key reasons behind Jamaica's success in track and field. When sport and education merge together efficiently, success comes in scholarships (usually to US colleges), Olympic and World Championship medals and role models to the next generation of athletes.
From Arthur Wint to Usain Bolt, from Merlene Ottey to Elaine Thompson, Jamaican track superstars share competing at Champs as the first big milestone of their careers.
Rekortan ready to power the next chapter of Jamaican track history
So as Grand Slam Track poises to make its mark on the global track scene, not only is it fitting that it has chosen Jamaica, but also the home of Champs to host its inaugural Slam.
It is a move that honors an extraordinary Jamaican track heritage and heralds a new era for the sport. The newly resurfaced Rekortan track at the National Stadium, which incorporates the colors of the Jamaican flag, is ready to power the next chapter of Jamaican track history, from high school champions to Grand Slam Racers.