The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

NEARLY 30 years since Frank Rutherford brought home a Bronze medal in the triple jump event from the Olympics at Barcelona, Spain he said he has not received any of the rewards he was promised.

Mr Rutherford’s third place finish in August 1992 at the time earned The Bahamas its first track and field Olympic medal.

The stellar achievement, according to Mr Rutherford yesterday, brought the assurance that he would be gifted land and $300,000.

By Mr Rutherford’s account, he was the first athlete to be promised a portion of the same property that was formerly granted to the Golden Girls and Golden Knights.

However, former Cabinet minister Algernon Allen disputed this yesterday.

Mr Allen was minister of youth, sports and culture at the time under the Free National Movement, which was newly elected on August 19, 1992. He told The Tribune that yesterday was the first time he had ever heard the claim.

According to Mr Rutherford, when he returned home from the Barcelona Olympics, former Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling said he would receive a handsome reward. Soon after, the former triple jumper said there was a general election, resulting in the Progressive Liberal Party’s defeat.

“The land that you see Ramon and them talking about, that land was found for me,” Mr Rutherford said. “It wasn’t found for the Golden Girls or the (Golden) Knights, that land was found for Frank Rutherford.

“They were gifting that land to me in 1992 to build a home for me, along with giving me $300,000 in cash for me winning the Olympic medal, giving me a lifetime tenure with the Ministry of Tourism/Sports for the rest of my life. Those were the gifts that was put also on Cabinet paper, but they could not ratify it because there was no Cabinet. The PLP would’ve had to wait until after the election and then go and move forward in ratifying that.

“Consequently, Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling lost the election. The then former prime minister told me part of his responsibility of transferring the power to the new prime minister was he gave that to the new prime minister for me.”

Instead, Mr Rutherford said under the new government he was fired from his job at the Hotel Corporation/Ministry of Tourism. In those days, he said athletes were put to work at the ministry as a means of subvention.

“Somebody who had just done something for the country that was never seen before (was fired). It was such an embarrassing thing, there was a public outcry,” he told The Tribune.

Mr Rutherford said at some point he left The Bahamas and returned later for a meeting with then Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham.

“I flew in from Europe and he told me basically all these gifts that the former prime minister was giving you, I am not doing this for you and then he went on to tell me he doesn’t like sports and that it wasn’t going to be a priority to him,” he alleged.

“So, that’s why you see today I still have not gotten any of my rewards for winning the country its first and only at the time track and field medal.”

Regarding the infrastructure dilemma now faced by the Golden Girls and Golden Knights for land they were gifted, Mr Rutherford said: “You can’t go now and start a policy when you had not taken care of the original, when it was made for the original.”

Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham declined comment yesterday, directing this newspaper to seek the insight of Mr Allen.

Yesterday, Mr Allen said there had been no formal policy of giving awards to athletes until 1993. He defended Mr Ingraham saying “nothing would have been said by Mr Ingraham in relation to Frank Rutherford, because my goodness gracious, we were all so very proud of his achievement.”

“The whole policy with respect of rewards to and subventions to elite athletes was not put in place until 1993,” Mr Allen recalled. “Before then there was no policy, no position taken in respect of rewards to and subventions to elite athletes.

“The FNM government, in fact I was the minister responsible for taking to the FNM Cabinet a paper which rewarded elite athletes for not only the achievement of them, but also gave a monthly stipend to many elite athletes for up to $1,500 per month.

“It was groundbreaking and was the first time it was being done in the Caribbean.

“We also for the first time for persons who had achieved medals gave $40,000 for the gold medal, $25,000 or thereabout for the silver and $10,000 for the bronze — it was a very handsome sum at that time.

“So, you know it’s amazing how something which was so generous and so gracious at the time could now be placed in such a sad light.”

Asked specifically about former Prime Minister Pindling’s reported promise to Mr Rutherford, Mr Allen said: “Oh my, well, let me say this: if that had been the case certainly before now that would have been mentioned. Never ever. I don’t know where that came from.

“If that had been the case, before now, it certainly would have been mentioned. This is the first time I will be hearing that.”

Mr Allen said he was shocked by Mr Rutherford’s revelation, saying the pledge was never communicated to Mr Ingraham or himself as the new youth, sports and culture minister at the time.