Apart from music, sports is one of Jamaica’s biggest pastime activities. The most popular sports are athletics, cricket, football and netball.
Athletics
Yohan Blake, Usain Bolt and Warren Weir
Athletics is perhaps the most successful sport in Jamaica’s history. Jamaica made its Olympic debut at the London Olympics in 1948 where they won one gold and two silver medals. The medals were won by Arthur Wint and Herbert Mckenley who are regarded as the pioneers of Jamaica’s athletics tradition. Jamaica has competed in all Summer Olympics since 1948. Jamaica’s athletics team has won a total of 77 Olympic medals which include 23 gold, 32 silver and 22 bronze.
Scholastic Athletics Championships (Champs)
High school championship
Like for all other sports, Jamaican children are introduced to athletics through the Jamaican school system. Jamaica is one of the first countries in the world to have established a national athletics championship for high schools. The first championship was held in 1910. It is now considered by experts in track and field to be the largest high school championship in the world, with over 120 teams competing in over 80 events. It is also the largest and most exciting sporting event that is held in Jamaica each year. The Championship is commonly referred to in Jamaica as “Champs”.
Cricket
Cricket
Cricket traces its origin to mediaeval England in the 1500’s. It became the national sport of England in the 18th century. The British Empire introduced the game to its colonies and by the middle of the 19th century it became well established in Jamaica.
Jamaica plays international cricket under the name West Indies, as a combined team with other English speaking countries countries of the British West Indies. From the mid 1970’s to the early 1990’s the west indies team was one of the best in the world.
Today there are 3 different versions of cricket. Test cricket which is the standardised version of the game may last for up to a period of five days. Perhaps the most similar sport to cricket is baseball.
Football
Jamaica vs Argentina
Competitive football in Jamaica started in the high school system in 1909. Jamaica’s first international game was played against Haiti in 1925. In 1965 Jamaica made its first attempt to participate in the World Cup. Thirty two years later, in 1997 Jamaica became the first English speaking country in the Caribbean to qualify for the World Cup. Their world cup debut at France 1998 was against Croatia, where they lost 3-1. They were defeated by Argentina 5-0. In their final match they defeated Japan by 2-1. The Jamaica national team adopted the name “Reggae Boys in 1997.
Football has now become the most popular team sport in Jamaica.
Netball
Netball
Netball is the most popular team sport for women in Jamaica
The development of the game started in England as a derivative version of basketball for women. It is played in over 80 countries and is most popular among countries of the British Commonwealth. It is perhaps the only exclusive women’s team sport in the world. The game was introduced to Jamaica in 1909 through the school system.
The national netball team of Jamaica is called Sunshine Girls. Since their first international game in 1959, they have participated in every World Netball Championships, finishing no lower than 6th. Jamaica have placed 3rd in three World Championships, 1991, 2003 and 2007.
Olympic Games
London 2012 Olympics
Rank: 39
Medallas: 78
Gold: 23 | Silver: 32 | Bronze: 23
Jamaica has won a total of 77 medals in the sport of athletics and one bronze medal which was won by David Weller in cycling at the 1980 Olympics.
Their most successful Olympic Games was at the 2008 Beijing Olympics where they dominated the sprinting events and won a total of 11 medals comprising of 6 gold, 4 silver and 1bronze.
At the most recent 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro the team earned a total of 11 medals which included 6 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze.
Winter Olympics
Jamaica at the 2014 Winter Olympics
Jamaica is the first tropical country to have ever participated at the Winter Olympics. The team of Devon Harris, Dudley Stokes, Michael White, Freddy Powell and Chris Stokes made their Olympic debut in the sport of bobsleigh at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary Canada. The Jamaican bobsleigh team has qualified for the Winter Olympics again in 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2014.
In 2000 the Jamaican Bobsleigh team won the gold medal at the World Push Championships in Monoco, Italy. At the 2002 Winter Olympics the team of Winston Watts and Lascelles Brown set an Olympic record of 4.78 seconds for the push start segment of the two-man race. ‘
Many of you are familiar with the film “Cool Runnings” which is a comical version of the experience of the Jamaican team at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. Since their Olympic debut and the release of the film the Jamaican Bobsleigh team has become the most famous teams worldwide in the sport of bobsleigh.