Jamaica_at_the_2016_Summer_Olympics
Jamaica at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Sporting event delegation
Jamaica competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, from August 5 to 21, 2016. This marked its sixteenth Summer Olympic appearance as an independent nation, although it had previously competed in four other editions as a British colony, and as part of the West Indies Federation.
Jamaica Olympic Association sent its largest ever delegation to the Games, with 56 athletes, 25 men and 31 women, competing only in track and field, swimming, diving, and artistic gymnastics, which marked the country's Olympic debut in Rio de Janeiro.[2][3]
Heading the list of athletes on the Jamaican roster were sprint superstars Usain Bolt, who was looking to successfully defend his 100 m, 200 m, and 4 × 100 m relay titles (referred to as "treble treble"), and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who was hunting for her third consecutive title in the women's 100 metres, and eventually acted as the nation's flag bearer in the opening ceremony.[1][4] Apart from Bolt and Fraser-Pryce, several Jamaican athletes had past Olympic experience, including former champion Veronica Campbell-Brown in the women's 200 metres, Bolt's sprint teammates Asafa Powell and Yohan Blake, and four-time Olympians Novlene Williams-Mills (women's 400 metres) and swimmer Alia Atkinson.
Jamaica left Rio de Janeiro with a total of 11 medals (6 gold, 3 silver, and 2 bronze), matching its overall tally from the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; all of these medals were awarded to the track and field athletes.[5][6] In his fourth and final Olympics, Bolt successfully completed a set of three consecutive titles across the 100 m, 200 m, and 4 × 100 m relay races, making him one of the most decorated Olympians of all-time in the track and field. Moreover, he joined Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi as the only athletes to establish a record of nine gold medals in the sport.[7][8] Fraser-Pryce witnessed her three-peat bid come to an end, as her compatriot Elaine Thompson beat out the defending champion to run away with a gold in the women's 100 m.[9] Other medalists also included Omar McLeod, who became the first Jamaican to successfully earn the men's 110 m hurdles title, and Williams-Mills, who anchored the Jamaican squad for a runner-up finish in the women's 4 × 400 m relay, adding a silver to her career tally of three bronze medals that she previously collected in three consecutive Olympics.[10][11]
