The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IT was on August 3, 1992 in Barcelona, Spain when Frank Rutherford clinched the first track and field medal for the Bahamas at the Olympic Games. His bronze medal in the men’s triple jump helped to propel so many athletes to attain that lofty goal of ascending on the podium of the greatest sporting event in the world.

With the delayed 2020 games underway and track and field beginning to take centre stage for 14 athletes representing the Bahamas in Tokyo, Japan, we take a trip down memory lane to that historic achievement by Rutherford, what it meant to him and how he felt it has inspired generations that followed him.

On that momentous occasion, Rutherford soared from seventh place with a leap of 54-feet, 11 ½-inches or 16.75m on his first attempt to second with 56-11 1/2 (17.36m) on his second attempt behind American Mike Conley, who led at the time with 57-10 1/4 (17.63).

Rutherford stayed in that position until American Charlie Simpkins popped 57-9 (17.60m) on his sixth and final shot.

While Conley went on to clear (18.17m) on his sixth and final attempt to hold on to the gold, Simpkins picked up the silver with 57-9 (17.60m), dropping Rutherford to bronze with a pair of best performances of 56-11 ½ (17.36m) on his second and third attempts. As his sixth and final jumper, Rutherford scratched.

It didn’t matter.

The Bahamas had finally claimed a spot on the podium, only achieved before in sailing with Sir Durward Knowles and Cecil Cooke for the gold in the Star Class at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo and before that with Knowles as he teamed up with Sloane Farrington in the Star Class for the bronze in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.

Rutherford, however, was in a class all by himself. He was the pioneering Bahamian to win a medal in track and field and 28 years, or 29, when you consider the Olympics have been delayed by one year because of the coronavirus pandemic, it feels like it was just yesterday.

“At the press conference with the Olympic medallists when the question was asked by the media, I told the world don’t expect the world to just know the Bahamas as a country of sun, sand and sea and the number one tourist destination in the world,” Rutherford said.

“Except us every Olympics to see our flag on the pole, our national anthem played and our athletes ascending the podium to receive their medals. So said, so done. Every time that the Olympics start, it’s when track and field gets started. So as long as I live, I will always have goose pimples at that historic moment.

“Every time the Olympics start for me, I have a great sense of joy and patriotism and happiness and I’m glad that God gave me the ability to bring that feeling to an entire country. I just sit down and wait and wish all of the athletes the success that was inspired in our country from 1992.”

Since then, the Bahamas has captured a total 12 medals, including five gold, two silver and five bronze, earning at least one every games that followed.

The 1996 Atlanta games saw the emergence of the “Golden Girls” women’s 4 x 100m relay team (Savatheda Fynes, Chandra Sturrup, Eldece Clarke, Pauline Davis and Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie) with the silver behind the United States of America.

The best overall performance came at the 2000 Sydney, Australia games with three medals as Davis-Thompson was elevated to gold in the women’s 200m after American Marion Jones got stripped for doping violation; the Golden Girls – same team, emerged victorious for the other gold and the men’s 4 x 400m relay (Avard Moncur, Troy McIntosh, Carl Oliver, Chris Brown and Tim Munnings) earned a bronze.

Four years later at the 2004 Athens, Greece games, Tonique Williams surged to the top of the podium with the gold in the women’s 400m and Ferguson-McKenzie claimed a bronze in the women’s 200m.

At the 2008 Beijing games in China, the men’s 4 x 400m team (Andretti Bain, Michael Mathieu, Andrae Williams and Chris Brown) resurged with the silver and Leevan ‘Superman’ Sands captured the country’s second bronze in the men’s triple jump.

An inspired men’s 4 x 400m relay team, anchored by Ramon Miller, upset the USA for the gold at the 2012 London games. Also on that team were Demetrius Pinder, Mathieu and Brown. It was the only medal, but it was well celebrated on the final night of competition.

Then came the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil where Shaunae Miller-Uibo inked her place in history with her gold medal feat in the women’s 400m. She was joined by the men’s 4 x 400m relay team (Alonzo Russell, Steven Gardiner, Stephen Newbold, Mathieu and Brown) in adding the bronze.

Now retired at age 56, but running his Frank Rutherford Foundation in Houston, Texas, Rutherford said when he accomplished his historic feat, it was something that many people never thought could be done. But it inspired generations of athletes as he looks back and simply says, “We did it.”

Turning the clock back to 1992 when it all got started, Rutherford said it was one of those times when he felt he failed himself because he was the last competitor on the runway and he had a golden opportunity to win it all.

“I was jumping better than anyone in the world and so I expected to win the gold,” said Rutherford, who went into the games as the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) outdoor champion. “For me to have a B-minus say on the track and to do something historic, I brought glory to a country that never tasted it before.

“If I had to go back and do it all over again, I would have adjusted by speed on the runway. But for me, that was our Olympic gold because we had never won a medal in track and field at the games before that and a medal in an Independent Bahamas.”

Now an assistant coach at his alma mater at the University of Houston, Rutherford said he’s just delighted to have been the impetus for athletes like Miller-Uibo, Gardiner and Thomas, who are among the list of competitors on this year’s team attempting to secure another medal in Tokyo.

“That performance in 1992 was the foundation and the pillow for every Olympic performance in track and field in the Bahamas will stand on,” he lamented. “They know they have a legitimate chance to medal because of what I did in 1992.”

Having watched as the Bahamas continues its medal haul every Olympic since, Rutherford said he’s impressed with the parental support where people are getting more involved in the Bahamas Association of Athletic Association (BAAA) and making plans to travel to the games to watch their children and athletes they coach to succeed.

“When I was competing, my parents probably saw me compete about two times,” he recalled. “But nowadays, more parents are making a commitment to the sport in every level of track and field because of their children and the shoe contracts they can achieve as a result of their accomplishments.”

But Rutherford, who has a daughter, Jazmyn Tilford-Rutherford, and a niece, Camille Rutherford, at the University of Houston following in his footsteps, said he would like to see more athletes, who are benefiting from the NCAA scholarships and the shoe company endorsements going a bit further than he did, along with athletes like Davis-Thompson and Troy Kemp, to take the sport to an even higher level.

If there’s one regret that Rutherford said he was disappointed in, it was the fact that he never really got the incentives that was promised to him by the Government of the Bahamas for his achievement, despite the politics that nullified it all.

“The Pindling Administration told me they are going to build me a house, which is on the same land that they are giving to our athletes for their achievement and they were giving me a lifetime employment with the Ministry of Tourism and a cash reward,” he recalled.

“But after the new government came into power, because I was labelled a ‘Pindling boy,’ I’m still waiting on my rewards. These are things, at my age, I feel should not be held against me because of what I achieved for the country.”

As a citizen of the Bahamas, Rutherford said he had the right to endorse whomever he wished politically, but he never once campaigned for any party and so he felt it should not have been an impediment to him receiving what was due to him.

With track and field now underway, Rutherford said he’s rooting for the success of the Bahamian team.

“The Olympic Games happen every four years, but with the pandemic hitting the world, these athletes are fortunate to get an opportunity to compete at the games,” he said. “So this is even an extra special time.

“They are doing it without the fans watching, so for me, I would encourage them not just go for the experience, but cherish the opportunity to compete at the highest level and your best level with the purpose of giving everything you have and leave it on the table. If you don’t win a medal, don’t be disappointed in yourself. Just go out there and let the chips fall where it may.”

He even predicted that the Bahamas will once again get back on the podium, this time with two more medals. He anticipates that Miller-Uibo will repeat as the women’s 400m champion if she runs the event. If she does the 200m, he said she should get on the podium, but won’t indicate with what colour medal.

Gardiner, he claimed, will end up with the silver in the men’s 400m. Coming from someone who feels he has set the pace for so many to follow, Rutherford said his predictions might be bold, but he’s confident that before the games are done on August 8, the Bahamas will have something more to celebrate.