The Jamaican swim teams aspiring for a bright future

BY JOSEPH CUNNINGHAM

During the last decade the progress made by Jamaican swimmers has given hope that one day they could be as dominant as other Jamaicans have been in the sport of track & field. The sport is yet to produce an Olympic champion for the country although Jamaica has performed well at the regional level.

However, before we look at the last decade, let’s first roll back the curtains of memory to be reminded of the contributions made by those swimmers who were the catalyst to where Jamaica’s swimming is today.

The sport has produced Janelle Atkinson, one of the best in Jamaica’s swimming history. She placed Jamaica in the spotlight at a major international event – the Olympic Games – when she reached the final of the women’s 400-metre freestyle event at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She just missed a place on the podium by finishing fourth in a national record time of 4:08.79.

Janelle also competed in the women’s 800-metre at that Olympics. She clocked 8:34.51 for ninth overall. She also represented Jamaica at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. Atkinson again proved herself at the Pan Am Games level, winning three silver medals for Jamaica at the 1999 edition.

Other Jamaican swimmers who competed at the Olympics were: Alan Roy Marsh, Andrew Phillips, Derek Marks, Gordon Scarlett in 1984 in Los Angeles, USA; Sion Brinn in 1996 in Atlanta, USA; Jevon Atkinson, Alia Atkinson and Natasha Moodie in 2008 in Beijing, China.

Andrew Phillips qualified for the final of the men’s 200-metre individual medley and finished sixth in 2:05.60. He also competed in the men’s 400 metre individual medley and placed 10th overall (which is second in the B-final) in 4:27.98. Derek Marks and Gordon Scarlett competed in the men’s 100-metre freestyle and had overall placings of 45th and 52nd respectively. Allan Roy Marsh took part in the 100 and 200-metre backstrokes. He finished 27th overall in the 100-metre backstroke in 1:00.04 and also the same position in the 200-metre backstroke clocking in at 2:11.57.The quartet of Alan Roy Marsh, Andrew Phillips, Derek Marks and Gordon Scarlett finished 17th overall in the men’s 4×100 medley relay with a time of 4:05.35.

Sion Brinn represented Jamaica in the men’s 50 and 100-metre freestyle events at the 1996 Olympics. He was a non-qualifier in the 50-metre freestyle finishing 29th overall in 23.35. However, Brinn made the B-final of the 100-metre freestyle and finished fourth in 50.09, which is 12th overall. He represented Great Britain at the 2000 Olympics.

Jevon Atkinson and Natasha Moodie, 50-metre freestyle, and Alia Atkinson, 200-metre breaststroke, did not make it out of the first round in their events at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Alia Atkinson managed to finish second in her heat of the women’s 200-metre breaststroke in Beijing. She clocked of 2:29.53, but that time could not qualify her to the semi-final round.

The Last Decade

Alia Atkinson made history for Jamaica in 2010 by becoming the first Jamaican woman to compete in a final at a FINA World Swimming Championships. She made the final of the women’s 50-metre breaststroke in Dubai and finished sixth in 30.25.

John Eyre, past president of the Amateur Swimming Association of Jamaica (ASAJ), the governing body for swimming in Jamaica, gave his thoughts as to the development of the sport throughout the last decade, while citing reasons the sport hasn’t made even more progress. He believes that through Alia Atkinson, Jamaica has enjoyed its best results ever at the highest levels, particularly at the World Short and Long Course Championship. This includes one world record.  “Despite Alia Atkinson’s success, the number of swimmers participating in local swimming competitions has increased only marginally. In regional competition, Jamaica has produced a number of good individual results, many of whom live and train abroad. A lack of depth has prevented Jamaica from toping any of the regional competitions.”

Further, he emphasized that, “The greatest hindrance to development remains a lack of pools and trained coaches/instructors. The majority of facilities are in Kingston. The ASAJ and SwimJamaica have, without success, worked with G.C. Foster College to renovate their pool and launch a swim coaches’ education program. SwimJamaica is currently working with UTECH to create a coaches’ certification program, and this seems to be the brightest opportunity to date. Unless we can increase the number of pools available for training, significant growth of the sport will be difficult. A lack of pool facilities has hampered SwimJamaica in its attempt to introduce quality learn to swim programs across the island.

The ASAJ has enjoyed some success developing an Open Water program with at least two competitions on the competitive calendar annually.”SwimJamaica is an initiative of the Amateur Swimming Association of Jamaica (ASAJ). SwimJamaica was launched in January 2005 to significantly improve and change the long-term prospects of Jamaica’s competitive program.

Jamaican diver, Yona Knight-Wisdom has been a one-man band representing Jamaica with good results at senior level competitions. “His development has been primarily in the UK with the ASAJ providing the support required to be competitive for Jamaica,” Eyre revealed, adding, “There are no diving facilities or training programs in Jamaica so the discipline has not developed locally. Practically, the economics of discipline makes development difficult. While there have been a number of good performances at the age group level, a lack of expertise, limitations created by our education system and economics has resulted in little or no growth in the discipline of Artistic Swimming.”

Jamaican swimmers have also done reasonably well in regional competitions such as the Carifta Swimming Championships. Kendese Nangle and Timothy Wynter were the country’s top performers at the 2011 Carifta Championships in Barbados from April 23-26. Nangle finished with eight medals (five gold, one silver and two bronze) and was named the top overall female swimmer, while Wynter copped 10 medals (four gold, five silver and one bronze).

Jamaica’s 35-member team of swimmers captured 34 medals at the championships for a fourth place in the overall point’s standings, having amassed 561 points. The standings were topped by Guadeloupe (736.5), Trinidad and Tobago (679) and The Bahamas (610).

Brad Hamilton also achieved good results for Jamaica in 2011. He was the country’s sole representative at the 14th FINA World Championships in Shenghai, China. Hamilton broke his national senior record in the 100-metre butterfly with a 56.48 clocking. The old mark was 56.56. Among the list of swimmers who have also done well at the regional level for Jamaica are Brad Hamilton, Dominic Lee, Angela Chuck, Tamara Swaby, Travis Forte, Jonathan Forde, Dominic Walters and Amelia Thompson.

For the last decade, the standard bearer for swimming has been Alia Atkinson. She takes her role in Jamaican swimming very seriously, and even has a mission statement for her swimming career: “To place Jamaica on the world map of swimming; to agitate for the improvement of the infrastructural support for swimming in Jamaica so as to be able to take it to the next level; and to realize my full potential for myself, my parents, and my country.”

In 2012, with two Olympic Games under her belt, Atkinson focused on the 100-meter breast. Coming out of the semi-finals, she was tied for eighth with Canadian Tera van Beilen. The two had a swim off in which Atkinson took the last spot in the championship. In the outside lane, Atkinson had an impressive swim where she just missed the medal podium with a fourth-place finish.

First black woman to win a world title
In Doha at the 2014 Short Course World Championships, Atkinson focused on the sprint breaststroke events, the 50 and 100-metre breaststroke. After narrowly getting out-touched in the 50-metre breaststroke, Atkinson had nothing to lose going in the 100-metre breaststroke. Atkinson tied the World Record with a strong back half and surprised herself in the process. Her World Championship win in the event made her the first black woman in history to win a world title in swimming and was Jamaica’s first gold swimming medal in the World Championships.

2015 World Championships
In August 2015 Atkinson competed at the Long Course World Championships in Kazan. She broke the Jamaican National Record in the semi-finals of the 100-metre breaststroke and finished third in the final for bronze. Her finish made her the first Jamaican swimmer to win a long course world medal. After her history-making performance, Atkinson returned for the 50-metre breaststroke. This time she snuck into the championship after finishing sixth in the semi-final. In the final Atkinson dropped nearly a second off of her semi-final and narrowly missed the gold medal when she finished .06 seconds behind Jennie Johansson.

2018 World Cup
Alia competed in the 2nd cluster of the World Cup stops, including meets in Eindhoven and Budapest. In Budapest, on the last night of competition, Alia broke the 50-metre breaststroke (scm) world record, lowering her own mark by .08 from 28.64 to 28.56.

2018 Short Course World Championships
In Hangzhou, Atkinson finally pulled off the sprint breaststroke crown, winning both the 50-metre (29.05) and 100-metre breaststroke (1:03.51). She also successfully defended her bronze medal in the 100 IM (58.11).

2018 Central American & Caribbean Swimmer of the Year
Alia Atkinson continued to carry the torch for the Caribbean and Central American women. The most successful female swimmer in the region’s history, Atkinson added two more World Championship gold medals and a bronze to her haul in 2018, making her SwimSwam’s 2018 CAC Swimmer of the Year.

2019 Fina Swimming World Cup
The four-time Jamaican Olympian and short course world record holder won the 50-metre breaststroke in 30.35 seconds ahead of Satomi Suzuki of Japan in 31.09 seconds, with Alina Zmushka (31.12) of Belarus in third.

2019 Hall of Fame Induction
Alia Atkinson was one of 10 Texas A&M University legends to be honoured on September 13^th, 2019, at the Burgess Banquet in College Station, Texas.