Athletics superfan spreads Brand Jamaica worldwide
Published:Thursday | August 31, 2023 | 12:10 AMJanet Silvera/Senior Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
He travels with a Jamaican flag that has been to 10 World Athletics Championships, five World Cup football games, five Olympics and a number of Wimbledon and French Open tournaments. Jamaicans in the stand call him Ambassador Extraordinaire.
His government name is Robert Richards.
He wears the Jamaican colours with serious pride and doesn’t joke around when it comes to things to do with his country.
“I may want to cuss my country but nobody else must do that,” he warned, even as he beamed with pride knowing he was the most popular face off the tracks in the just-concluded World Athletics Championships 2023.
He was also the envied initiator behind the iconic Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson, Sha’Carri Richardson selfie that has been seen by millions worldwide. Richards threw his phone to Fraser-Pryce, shortly after the 100 metres female finals, which saw Richardson copping gold, Jackson taking home the silver and Fraser-Pryce the bronze.
“It is normal for me to throw my phone to the athletes. A lot of the athletes through the years have kind of known me, starting from Helsinki, but we didn’t have a lot of stars at that time,” he told The Gleaner in Budapest last weekend.
But the pictures are a minuscule part of what this Jamaican carries in his armoury during the games.
“There is no better way than giving our gifts of Jamaica. Every trip that I take I bring a lot of shirts, a lot of armbands, kits, coffee, anything unique to Jamaica, including tamarind balls,” he stated.
Just like the gifts, his flag is a hit at stadiums worldwide. The flag actually has athletics icon Usain Bolt’s signature, from when he won with two world records, as well as several other athletes’ signatures and several World Cup players’ signatures.
“It has been a flag that has been to more games than most. When I go with our flag to, say, the US Open, although we are not playing tennis there are people who come to take pictures with it,” he pointed out to The Gleaner.
Richards’ Brand Jamaica love affair started when he went on the tour to France, and witnessed the impact the island had on the people.
“It made me really say, ‘Listen here, we really need to start translating that to something more positive for the local people back at home’. Several people had Brand Jamaica in their stalls, in their shops, while no Jamaican shops were there as Jamaican, there was no travel agency for Jamaica,” he reminisced as he lamented.
He said that, apart from what was tagged the Jamaica Village, which was eventually put on top of a roof on a plaza, which hardly anybody knew about, it was upsetting to see those who should have been putting things in place were having a good time otherwise.
“I set aside from then to say, every time I travel, I am gonna ensure that the public, the people I sit around, the people I move around within the stadium, know about Jamaica,” he noted.
While in Hungary for 10 days, the Hungarians who sat around Richards and the large contingent of Jamaicans, approximately 200 people, the majority dressed in their gold, black and green, fell in love with Jamaica and wanted to learn more about the country.
“I brought a lot of shirts for the people of Budapest, particularly the children; the children get very excited about Brand Jamaica. They are actually the driving forces that get their parents to want to come to the country,” he added, noting that he has met several people at Championships, given his number to them and, the next time he hears from them, they are in Jamaica.
“I take them out, show them a little bit and it’s really been a refreshing thing to see what has happened. I see hundreds, probably has gone into thousands now, of people who have come to Jamaica, from seeing us at the Games and influence that I have had working with the guys there,” he stated.
Huge opportunity missed
He is convinced the country’s leaders should stop beating around the bush, making grandiose statements, and instead start implementing and capitalising on these events.
“Jamaica can get ourselves out of poverty and it’s time that we use our brand name. We lost a huge opportunity in the golden era that I call the Bolt-Shelly era, in which we should have capitalised on so much, and if you look on our returns that we got from Bolt, it’s little or nothing,” he decried.
Accordingly, he said the time was now to use the up-and-coming stars, such as the Clayton twins [Tina and Tia].
“Apart from us coming and sitting in the stands, we should have a Jamaican booth outside, we should have a tourist board having a section outside, an agency of sorts for people interested in booking. Not just us winning medals and people jumping up and down in Half-Way Tree, because that doesn’t earn anything for the country.”
Richards uses the money he makes from his IT business, Lan Integrators, which he founded 29 years ago, to buy the gifts, and says for Jamaica to benefit, that’s the investment he will put in.
“If I can get even 20 new people coming to Jamaica to come and spend money in Jamaica and have it trickle down to the craft man on the road, the sky juice and restaurant man in the area, I have done my part.”
The former badminton player said that, during his travels and being in stadiums where championships are held, he feels Jamaica has made its biggest impressions in Hungary and Berlin, Germany.