The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS 

Chief Sports Editor 

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

The 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, has come and gone with the Bahamas’ 20-member team returning home with some credible performances but, for the first time since 1988, there were no medal winners.

Team Bahamas, with two swimmers and 18 track and field athletes, participated in the games that ran from July 27 to August 11.

Cora Hepburn, who made history as the first female to head the team as the chef de mission, applauded the entire team for their performances.

“In terms of performances for Team Bahamas, we had four returning Olympians and the majority of the team were first-time members,” said Hepburn, who was assisted by team leader Roy Colebrook.

“Those first-time Olympians, the majority of them put in some good performances like Charisma Taylor, who competed in two events, Antoine Andrews, Wayna McCoy, Denisha Cartwright, Ken Mullings and Rhema Otabor.”

On the flip side of the coin, Hepburn admitted that there were disappointments, especially resulting in the team falling short of a medal.

She noted that the biggest disappointment was the “no show” by quarter-miler Steven Gardiner in defending his Olympic title in the men’s 400 metres.

Gardiner, 27, didn’t report for the final call for the start of the men’s 400m preliminaries and, when his heat came out in the Stade de France, his name had a DNS (did not start) beside it.

His management team, On Time Track Management, released a statement later in the day indicating that he had suffered a recurring injury with his left ankle and was unable to compete.

Other than Gardiner, two-time Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo was injured and not at full strength competing in the women’s 400m, while world indoor record holder and champion Devynne Charlton, in her bid to lead two other ladies in the 100m hurdles, came up with a sixth-place finish.

Those were the three key athletes anticipated to lead the Bahamas’ medal parade, along with the possibility of Otabor in the women’s javelin.

But as it turned out, only Mullings, who broke grounds as the first Bahamian to compete in the 10-event decathlon over two days, joined Charlton as the only two finalists. Mullings finished 13th overall.

“I think we as a country are spoiled when it comes to winning medals,” said Hepburn of the trend at the Olympics that started in 1992 in Barcelona, Spain with Frank Rutherford earning a bronze for the first track and field medal and at every Olympiad ever since, the Bahamas captured at least one medal.

“We now feel that every time we go to the Olympics, we can now come back with a medal. But if we can enhance the first-time athletes that we saw in Paris, we should be right on target to getting back on track to winning medals again in 2028.”

The next Olympic Games will be held in Los Angeles, California in 2028 and most of the athletes who fell short of getting into the final have vowed that they will be back with a vengeance.

Based on the games itself, Hepburn said there were complaints of a shortage of food and no air conditioning in the Games Village where the athletes stayed. When she arrived in Paris, Hebpburn said she was informed by the International Olympic Committee that 30-40 per cent of the volunteers didn’t show up.

She noted that without the full complement of volunteers needed, it made it extremely difficult for the 60-70 per cent who showed up to function properly.

“We experienced some of those problems as the days passed,” Hepburn said. “That’s why the issue in the eatery was the way it was because if you don’t have sufficient cooks and servers, you would have those types of problems.

“But like every Olympic Games, you have your highs and you have your lows and so we have to work with what you have.”

Notwithstanding what transpired in Paris, Hepburn said Team Bahamas had its share of problems before leaving The Bahamas with the confusion over who should go in the pool for the mixed 4 x 400m relay and who should not go. “From the inception, my views regarding the mixed relays is that the criteria for the team should have been tabled because it was the first time we were having a mixed relay team qualified,” she said.

“If the BAAA (Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations) had sat with the BOC, I’m sure that the whole situation that was displayed in the media was not necessary and should not have happened, if that was done.”

The team of Wendell Miller, Javonya Valcourt, Alonzo Russell and Quincy Penn finished eighth in their heat of the relay in three minutes and 14.58 seconds for 14th overall.

The team also featured two teenagers, Shania Adderley and Lacarthea Cooper, who didn’t get to compete. Cooper was also there as an alternate.

The Bahamas was also represented by Lamar Taylor and Rhanishka Gibbs, who competed in swimming.

Neither advanced to the semifinals, but Taylor lowered his national record in the men’s 100m freestyle with his winning performance in his heat.

Efforts were also made for the men’s national basketball team to play in the games, but they fell short in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament, losing to Spain in the championship game that qualified just the champion.

The games also introduced some sports like break dancing, skateboarding, sport climbing and trampoline, which should give the local associations and federations the inspiration to not just look at competing in the traditional sports, but those that are now expanding on the global stage.