Amina Taylor | It’s time to wave the black, gold and green in Paris

The Paris Olympic Games officially begin tomorrow (Friday, July 26). The greatest living athletes of our generation are in the French capital, set to compete in the first post-pandemic Olympics – you have to feel for Japan in 2021, I’m sure the organisers still have fever dreams about the massive empty venues and wasted billions.

Lucky for us global sports fans, the uncertainty of whether we’ll ever be able to host these massive events is behind us and thank goodness for that. And doubly lucky for us fans of Team Jamaica, because we will be there in our numbers, shouting our superstars to medal glory.

The sweat, sacrifice and tears to get to this point will mean everything as the best of the best take centre stage. And guess who’s going to be wildly cheering them on for some of the events? That’s right… lil ‘ol me and my boys!

I was there for the 2012 games in London on that special night on August 10 when Jamaica did the clean sweep in the men’s 200m. Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake and Warren Weir made sure that podium was stacked with the boys from the Land of Wood and Water. The black, gold and green was everywhere and I positively floated home on that high.

Over a decade later, I still get that Olympic buzz but it wasn’t only from the victory, there’s something about sports fans gathering and that camaraderie. Sport is a unifying force and with the Paris games a hop across the channel, there was no way I was going to miss out on the opportunity to have my boys share this experience.

Though my teenager plays tennis and the five-year-old thinks he’s the next Ronaldo, I’m desperately trying to use these Games to hand down my obsession with track and field. It’s an area where Jamaica, Jamaicans in the diaspora and the wider African-Caribbean family have always found success and though we’re widening the talent pool across other disciplines, I think that’s where the bulk of the Olympic silverware will come from this time around as well.

ISSA RAE VIBE

I’m in that Issa Rae vibe heading to the French capital. The US star was asked by a reporter who she was rooting for on awards night and she said ‘everybody.’ That’s my approach to the Olympics. The way I’ll be screaming for the delegation from Haiti, St Lucia, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Ghana … this probably explains why the track and field element is my favoured part of any games. This still remains the more egalitarian side of sports where discovery is more plausible and success more likely.

I’m also a little nostalgic this time around. Some of our biggest stars have hung up their spikes and we’re all the poorer for never being able to witness their on-track greatness again (I’m talking to you Usain, Veronica, Asafa and company). My teenager was lucky enough to catch Bolt’s farewell 2017 season appearance at the World Championships in London but he’ll never again know the energy of seeing him light up a stadium at the very highest level of global competition.

We’ll be missing a few of the Caribbean’s most talented athletes at these games because of seasons disrupted by injuries. It would have been absolutely amazing to be able to have Elaine Thompson-Herah go for the triple double in Paris and again retain her 100m and 200m but the timing of this new Achilles injury has seen this dream come to a painful end.

Co-team captain for Jamaica, Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce has already announced these will be her final Games and at age 37, we know the Pocket Rocket has already kept father time on pause but he, too, will have his way eventually. We’re just willing her to one last successful campaign, a fitting tribute to one of the greatest ambassadors our sport has ever known.

DO THE NATION PROUD

I’m hoping to catch a glimpse of some Team Jamaica’s debut Olympians hoping to do the nation proud. If triple jump sensation Jaydon Hibbert, sprinters Tia Clayton, Ackera Nugent and Bryan Levell can keep the nerves at bay, Jamaica could be climbing that medal table.

It also helps that another first-time Olympian, Kishane Thompson, who has been tearing it up on the international circuit in the 100m seems to be hitting his peak at just the right time.

No pressure, but we need that male sprint crown back since Bolt last won it at the Rio games in 2016. We’ll be also keeping our eyes peeled for Nickisha Pryce who set a new national record and world-leading time at the final Diamond League meet in London ahead of the Olympics.

Those may be some of the names with the pedigree to do the business in Paris, but the beauty of sports, especially at Olympic level, is that we just don’t know where that extra piece of magic will come from, and I would absolutely love to be there in the stadium at the Stade de France to see this moment unfold. Having my sons there will add that extra sparkle. In such volatile global times, I can pause my assault on the politics of the day, forget about the economy for a little while, and go absolutely bonkers for my team … Watch out, Paris, we’re in the black, gold and green and we’re headed your way.

Amina Taylor is a journalist and broadcaster. She is the former editor of Pride magazine and works as producer, presenter and correspondent with Press TV in London. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com