Book Review: A showcase of talent, grit and politics

Glenville Ashby, Reviewer

Title: Great Jamaican Athletes

Author: Mark A. Jones

Mark A. Jones' Great Jamaican Athletes is an abbreviated encyclopaedia on the enthralling world of track and field. Short biographies of runners, hurdlers, and even a dynamic swimmer are testament to the overarching energy of the human will that mould the body to machine-like capabilities.

This is an offering more about mental toughness than physical prowess.

It captures the uncanny determination to resurrect bodies wrecked by potentially career-ending injuries. It is about mentorship, coaching, and on rare occasions, the luck of the draw. It details the agony of defeat and the ecstasy of victory. Over the last four Olympics, Jamaican sprinters have dominated the Olympics, the World Games and the Commonwealth Games, trumping the best that the United States and Europe have thrown at them.

Usain Bolt

The recording-breaking ac-complishments and charisma of Usain Bolt have stirred the curiosity of many, hitherto disinterested in that genre of sports. Arguably, he has raised the profile of an island of no more than three million people. But Jones' work is hardly provincial. It covers multiple grounds. For sure, Jamaican athleticism transcends Bolt. It harks back to the days of the unparalleled endurance and work ethic of Donald Quarry and the excellence of the late George Kerr, Lennox Miller, and others.

power of faith

Unquestionably, there is a mystique to the Jamaican athlete that Jones fails to cover. Not that his work aims at probing the psyche of greatness. Jones is no psychologist or geneticist. He is a veritable sports journalist with an opinion that is subtly loud. His work speaks volumes about the incredulous power of faith and self-assurance. It touches on turf wars that mar the professionalism of the sport, and the embedded superiority complexes that are slow to award credit where it is due. It reveals the frailty, if not the ugly side, of the human personality.

Jamaican Athletes can also be viewed as a tribute to gender parity, for Jamaica's female athletes have dazzled the world, no less than their male counterparts. The feats of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Brigitte Foster-Hylton and Merlene Ottey have enlivened sports aficionados.

There is also a sociopolitical dimension to Jones' undertaking. This is a compilation that oozes hope and expectation. There is that inherent desire that those who control the levers of power will forgo posturing and ensure that their promises bear fruit; an expectation that an athletic bar that has been set so high will never be lowered. In a land of disaffected youths, a paucity of training facilities and poor infrastructure, the global dominance of Jamaicans can only be described as stupendous, almost otherworldly.

But Jones rightly veers from merely chronicling the great athletic achievements and forays into the murky world of politics. He demands answers, questioning the promise of successive governments to help develop the full fruition of Jamaican athletic talent.

Alia Atkinson's success in the field of swimming speaks to much-needed diversity in sports. Of this prodigy, he writes: "Her exploits have instilled in Jamaican young and upcoming swimmers a sense of self-belief. Sadly, this has been stymied by a lack of swimming pools throughout the island. The only Olympic-size pool which is situated in the Old Capital of Spanish town is still in disuse, in spite of political posturing many moons ago ... ."

Conversely, he lauds the private sector that has risen to the occasion with its support of budding talent. Of youth development, he counsels, offering a worn but ever-poignant proposal. He writes: "If Jamaica is to unearth more talent, the Government need to build a sporting centre in every parish." Jones' advocacy for diversity in sporting is lucid and unswerving. Of lawn tennis, he adds: "This sport can be a major sport ... if it is coat-tailed on to soccer, which is a very popular sport. It has been proven time and again that it is always people who are fighting their way out of a poor society that excel in sport."

future of Jamaica

Surely, Jones well understands what's at stake. His book, his thesis is bigger than any single athlete in that island's Hall of Fame. Something much larger looms. The future of Jamaica is rooted in its human resource. And no small nation can afford to squander or slight its value.

Despite lip service by national leaders, the accomplishments of Jamaica's athletes have paradoxically served as a political Band-Aid, offering a respite from jarring political recriminations and polarisation. It has created, only for a moment, a surreal state of unbridled nationalism.

Jones' oeuvre is concise and written with candour. Blazoned with black and white, and colour pictures of athletes in full flight, or decked in fashionable raiments at award ceremonies, Great Jamaican Athletes is a page-turner - a compelling book that captivates the imagination of readers, no more than the very star power it covers.

Rating: Recommended.

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