Orville Taylor | Gold rush, but men need to catch up

Tachycardia, a condition where the heart beats at a chronically fast rate without obvious stimulus. Poor my vocabulary, but incontinent has nothing to do with a large land mass such as North America. However, the women’s 200 metres, in the World Athletics Championships, on that same piece of God’s earth, had my heart beating like that of lying politicians doing polygraph tests. Of course, it was very fortuitous that my bathroom is so close to my bedroom. Thus, Skip to My Loo was not just a quaint song.

Strangely, having just acquired a broom from Jah Mutt, who lives on the ‘Banks’ in my domicile of Brooke Valley, the sweep was always in my mind and doubtless, the expectation was for many medals as the Jamaican ladies slammed the door on the opposition.

Yet, the 200 metres was special, because, somehow emboldened by the form of Elaine Thompson, the ‘Herahine’ of the Tokyo Olympics, the Americans were dreaming of the ‘Great White Hope’ Abby Steiner striking her white lightning and finding metal. After all, the other athlete, whose cyberspace profile would benefit from my mentioning her name, was simply a simulacrum of a hungry pro-American audience, to combat the Jamaican wave. Alas, it was not to be, as no American finished higher than a distant fifth, after British-born Jamaican-conceived Dina Asher-Smith.

Jamaican speed is a coincidence of genetic factors, solidified by sociological variables. There is something within the socialisation of our athletes that accounts both for our success and failures. Jamaican parents/adults guided and kept grounded other champions, such as Linford Christie, Sanya Richards Ross. This socialisation is even more important in early adulthood when athletes think that ‘dem a big people’. Those of us who study people for our living understand that the part of the brain that governs responsibility and the full appreciation of causal relationships does not fully develop until after age 22.

LOFTY PREDICTIONS

Prior to the start of the championships, my lofty predictions were for 15 medals, including one in the 100 for either Yohan Blake or Oblique Seville, a ‘sure’ shiny one from the man from St Thomas, whose name was written on Parchment paper, and a properly selected team in the mixed 4x400 relay. The injury to Blake is understandable. However, had we treated the relay with the seriousness we should, I believe that we could have medalled.

But let us soak in the high. Shericka Jackson’s 21.45 is not only the fastest time by a living person, but like Elaine’s 10.54 on the same track a year ago, is the fastest recorded time by any human female, where there is no doubt or controversy over its accuracy or wind reading. This is 0.11 outside of Florence Griffith Joyner’s 21.34. Overall, we have won five of the six short sprint medals and our rivals from America had no finalist in the 400 metres. That is dominance and it goes back to 2007.

Jamaican women have won all Olympic 100 metres titles since 2008 and six of the last eight world titles from 2007.

Yet conversely, the American men have stormed back in the post-Usain Bolt era. Sweeps in both the 100 and 200 metres, with Noah Lyles inching within 0.13 seconds of Bolt’s 200 metres record of 19.19, with a time of 19.31 seconds. Truthfully, if we recognise that the 19.19 was run after six rounds of both the 100 and 200, it makes Bolt even more superhuman and Shericka, very scary. However, a record is a record.

WOMEN GOT BETTER

What has happened in sprinting is that Jamaican women have got better, averaging and aggregating more times faster than any other nationals, in the last decade. On the other hand, Jamaican men sprinters have got slower. It is not simply the absence of Bolt’s times; it is the socialisation gap that he has left.

Prior to the advent of Bolt, Jamaican men did ritually and habitually make their presence felt. After Don Quarrie, we had Michael Green, the Fraters and others who came through the USA collegiate system. However, with the professionalism of the sport and the rise of MVP and the managing of workloads, Jamaican athletes could now run 20 races in a season; and not the 50-plus that took the sting out of the legs of all the American-based collegiate. Note that Navasky Anderson, Jevaughn Powell, Kevona Davis and Charokee Young and even Steiner all seemed to run out of steam after the first round. We have long gone past the epoch when we looked to the American college circuit to deliver our male champions.

Yet, as genius coach Stephen Francis noted, the males in the post-Bolt era do not lack talent. They are short on commitment and solid work ethic. Having Bolt around created the necessary upward draft. What is reaching us is exactly what is happening in education and other areas where we need solid and exemplary black male leadership. There is a different kind of preparation between becoming ‘world class’ and ‘world beater’. Lyles and his crew figured it out.

Nonetheless, let me take the time though to thank all the athletes who did not medal. Win, lose or draw, I am riding the wagon wheels off.

Dr Orville Taylor is head of the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.