http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w335zLife in Trinbago
Olympic goals or golds?
Published: Sunday, August 12, 2012
Keith AndersonI am fed up of some Trinidadians and their criticisms of our Olympic athletes. I am tempted to think if they want gold so badly, why don’t they go by Y De Lima or Maraj Jewellers and buy it? I get angry when I hear comments that bash our athletes on imbecile radio shows. We are really living in a time of talk radio, where any fool and his brother have a platform to express their nonsense, disguised as opinion. I say let them bump their gums till the cows come home, if that is free speech and intelligent conversation.
I feel I did the correct thing as a youth when I gave up my Olympic dream, disappointed by the way we treat our heroes. Remember Rodney Wilkes? Remember Hasely “Crawfie” Crawford? I had visions of running the 100 metres in nine seconds, grabbing a major sponsor like Usain Bolt and making US$20 million in one year.
However, let me say that I am thrilled by the success—forget failure—of our athletes who have reached the world stage, making the finals of events, and the positions they came. They gave it their best shot, and I am proud of them. So who want to say that we celebrating defeat, I cool with that. They are not bound to celebrate with us; they could go live on their island. Just making it to the Olympics calls for sacrifice and determination; it is not achieved by ole talk, a Trini penchant.
However, as the curtain falls on the Olympics, I am filled with nostalgia—and relief from the butchering with advertising of the key moments of the events on television. Nevertheless, I am filled with Olympic moments I will cherish for a long while, especially those of Caribbean athletes.
We showed the world the power of dasheen, eddoes and yam. There was a time when the Caribbean was just an addition to the Games, and contingents were so small, they could shelter under an umbrella. By some mystery, too, they were made up of more officials than athletes.
Today it is different; there is now a growing respect for our regional athletes: Usain Bolt, “Pocket Rocket” Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Lalonde Gordon, Kirani James and others. They are now more popular than ham and hops or the English fish and chips. The Caribbean was also on top with newspapers around the world which headlined Bolt’s 100-metres victory. The British Guardian summed it up as “9.63 breathtaking seconds;” the Times of London simply said “Lightning Bolt;” and the Trinidad Guardian “Incredibolt.” Brilliant!
We must always remember those Caribbean heroes who paved the way to clothe us in Olympic glory: Rodney Wilkes, Wendell Mottley, Arthur Wint, Herb Mc Kinley, Don Quarrie, Hasely Crawford, Ato Boldon, Merlene Ottey and others. While I leave the medal-counting to China and the United States in their own medal race, I cannot help but feel some sorrow for Chinese athletes who are said to have “let down the motherland” by not winning gold.
Is that what the Olympic spirit is all about? Win, win, win? I thought it was about participation and the Olympic spirit of goodwill. I am worried about Chinese superstar hurdler Liu Xiang, the former 110-metre world-record holder, who stumbled in the first heats. Will he be sent to a labour camp or hounded by the Chinese Government as a failure?
And I am upset with Grenada’s Prime Minister Tilman Thomas, who gave Grenadians a half-day to celebrate. Holy Moses! This man deserves a bull pistle...a half-day to celebrate? Kirani James’ victory deserves a week, drinking Jack Iron rum and eating bake and shark. This reminds me of former Prime Minister George Chambers, who once said, “Fete done, back to work.” You see me, I gone.
