For sports fans, there’s nothing quite like the excitement generated by a new star. Football sizzled in 1958 when the teenaged Pele blasted onto the scene with the skills and goals that won the World Cup for Brazil. In like manner, it was pandemonium when a pair of 21 year-olds named Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser took over world sprinting at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.
Eight years later, Bolt and Fraser-Pryce are still in the public eye, but there are two newer names that are set to win the hearts of Jamaican sports fans. Elaine Thompson and Omar McLeod have already shown their world-class potential, but this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio di Janeiro could elevate them both to superstar status. Thompson, 24, is an candidate for gold in the women’s sprints, while McLeod is the early favourite for the men’s 110-metre hurdles.
Both attended Manchester High School, but are as different as chalk from cheese. She stayed in Jamaica and went to study and train at the University of Technology, Jamaica after her high school days ended. McLeod went abroad to the University of Arkansas where he won 3 US collegiate titles. A repeat 400-metre hurdles Carifta champion before a record-breaking 2013 season at Kingston College, he literally fizzes with energy while Thompson, who was athletically anonymous at Manchester High, comes across as quiet.
At 24, Thompson has emerged from obscurity. She trains at the University of Technology, Jamaica with Fraser-Pryce and looks like the next great Jamaican female sprinter. Last year at the World Championships, she came within a whisker of winning the 200 metres, and within an eye blink of Merlene Ottey’s national record. Holland’s Dafne Schippers edged her, 21.63 to 21.66 seconds, on the line. It was that close!
Those times made Schippers and Thompson the third and fifth fastest of all time.
Thompson, a native of Banana Ground, came close to frittering her talent away. She was saved by a heart-to-heart talk with Stephen Francis, the brilliant MVP Track Club coach. “I went to a track meet and didn’t do too well, and he basically took me to the side and gave me a speech that really motivated me and changed my life,” Thompson told the Jamaica Gleaner last year.
“I can’t say ”, she cautioned, “but he basically said that I was not in high school anymore and I needed to take things more seriously; that I needed to realise that I am running with the big girls now, so it pushed me to take it seriously.”
Sixth in the 110-metre hurdles at the World Championships, the 22-year-old McLeod hasn’t put a foot wrong in 2016. He was undefeated at press time, had the fastest times and beat several of his top rivals in a crisp win in the 60-metre hurdles at the World Indoor Championships in March. Jamaica hasn’t ever won Olympic gold in the sprint hurdles, but McLeod could be the one.
He knows it. After a topsy-turvy win earlier in the season, he told the Reuters news agency, “It wasn’t the perfect race and I hit a lot of hurdles on the way, but I’m so happy I could win, I’m going to the Rio Olympic Games with the aim of winning gold.”
Purchase issue #8 Vol. 7, to continue reading.
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For sports fans, there’s nothing quite like the excitement generated by a new star. Football sizzled in 1958 when the teenaged Pele blasted onto the scene with the skills and goals that won the World Cup for Brazil. In like manner, it was pandemonium when a pair of 21 year-olds named Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser took over world sprinting at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.
Eight years later, Bolt and Fraser-Pryce are still in the public eye, but there are two newer names that are set to win the hearts of Jamaican sports fans. Elaine Thompson and Omar McLeod have already shown their world-class potential, but this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio di Janeiro could elevate them both to superstar status. Thompson, 24, is an candidate for gold in the women’s sprints, while McLeod is the early favourite for the men’s 110-metre hurdles.
Both attended Manchester High School, but are as different as chalk from cheese. She stayed in Jamaica and went to study and train at the University of Technology, Jamaica after her high school days ended. McLeod went abroad to the University of Arkansas where he won 3 US collegiate titles. A repeat 400-metre hurdles Carifta champion before a record-breaking 2013 season at Kingston College, he literally fizzes with energy while Thompson, who was athletically anonymous at Manchester High, comes across as quiet.
At 24, Thompson has emerged from obscurity. She trains at the University of Technology, Jamaica with Fraser-Pryce and looks like the next great Jamaican female sprinter. Last year at the World Championships, she came within a whisker of winning the 200 metres, and within an eye blink of Merlene Ottey’s national record. Holland’s Dafne Schippers edged her, 21.63 to 21.66 seconds, on the line. It was that close!
Those times made Schippers and Thompson the third and fifth fastest of all time.
Thompson, a native of Banana Ground, came close to frittering her talent away. She was saved by a heart-to-heart talk with Stephen Francis, the brilliant MVP Track Club coach. “I went to a track meet and didn’t do too well, and he basically took me to the side and gave me a speech that really motivated me and changed my life,” Thompson told the Jamaica Gleaner last year.
“I can’t say ”, she cautioned, “but he basically said that I was not in high school anymore and I needed to take things more seriously; that I needed to realise that I am running with the big girls now, so it pushed me to take it seriously.”
Sixth in the 110-metre hurdles at the World Championships, the 22-year-old McLeod hasn’t put a foot wrong in 2016. He was undefeated at press time, had the fastest times and beat several of his top rivals in a crisp win in the 60-metre hurdles at the World Indoor Championships in March. Jamaica hasn’t ever won Olympic gold in the sprint hurdles, but McLeod could be the one.
He knows it. After a topsy-turvy win earlier in the season, he told the Reuters news agency, “It wasn’t the perfect race and I hit a lot of hurdles on the way, but I’m so happy I could win, I’m going to the Rio Olympic Games with the aim of winning gold.”
Purchase issue #8 Vol. 7, to continue reading.
Share this post: