The Tribune

By Rashad Rolle

IT was in the summer of 1956 that the Bahamas won its first Olympic medal - at the Melbourne Olympic Games.

1956 was an historic year in the Olympic competition.

For the first time, the games were held outside Europe and the United States.

Competing for medals in 17 events, 3,314 athletes from 72 countries assembled in Melbourne, Australia.

The Soviet Union, then the sporting world’s reigning superpower, won 98 medals, leading the final medal tally.

Of course, the Melbourne games were not the first games at which Bahamian athletes participated, but it was only the second.

Four years before, in 1952, a Bahamian team of seven athletes took part in the Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland.

It is no secret that track and field has been the foremost sport in the Bahamas for as long as most Bahamians could remember.

Yet in 1956, sailing provided the country with its first medal.

Back then Sir Durward Knowles and the late Sloane Farrington were riding the crest for the country. The pair were already enjoying a fine reputation on the world’s stage when they won the first of the two sailing medals that the Bahamas would collect by claiming a bronze in the Star Class sailing event.

Sir Durward and Mr Farrington were instrumental in ensuring the inclusion of the Bahamas in Olympic competition.

In 1946, they  placed third in the Star Class World Championships, an international competition for sailers.

The pair tried to register for the 1948 Olympic Games after being successful in other international sailing competitions.

But they faced one significant problem: The Bahamas was neither affiliated with the International Olympic Committee nor the International Yacht Racing Association. Nonetheless, Sir Durward and Sloane still competed in the 1948 Olympic Games - but as representatives of Great Britain.

In the end, supporters of the sailers and members of the House of Assembly were so determined to allow their countrymen to compete in the Olympic Games as Bahamians that they met on May 8, 1952 and formed the Bahamas Olympic Committee.

Aside from the boycotted 1980 games in the former Soviet Union, the Bahamas has taken part in every Olympic competition since.

In 1956, legendary Bahamian sprinter, Thomas A. Robinson, debuted on the Olympic stage. The country’s national stadium is named after him.

At the opening of the stadium, former Prime Minister, Hubert Ingraham, paid tribute to both Mr Robinson and Sir Durward.

He said: “Let us pause for a moment, as one Bahamas, in gratitude for the life, legacy and longevity of Sir Durward.

“Sir Durward, the nation that you love with generosity beyond measure, loves you in great return.

“That we as a country were granted the generosity of spirit and talent of yourself and Tommy Robinson is a blessing.

“That both of you are here to bear witness to the fullness of many of your dreams for The Bahamas is a blessing ten-fold.

“In the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, by happy coincidence 56 years ago, Sir Durward won a bronze medal. He went on to win a gold medal in Tokyo in 1964 along with Cecil Cooke.

“It was at that 1956 Olympics that the Bahamas first participated in track and field. That was the year that 18-year-old Thomas Augustus Robinson competed in the 100 and 200 metres. Over four consecutive Summer Olympics, beginning that year, Tommy Robinson blazed a trail.

“It is that trail upon which today’s Bahamian Olympians and tomorrow’s champions pursue their world class and Olympic dreams.”