Olympic Winners

BY JOHN-MARC

The 2016 Olympics are in the books, and once again team Bahamas was able to bring home multiple medals both coming in dramatic fashion.

Every year we rate our overall performance in medals per capita and all these made up stats to make us feel better, but this ranking system has to be the most scientific thing that 10YS has ever come up with.

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Once again we dominated the Olympics…Eat it Fiji!

 

5. Leevan Sands

After his injury in the pit at the London games, Leevan Sands came back to prove all the doubters wrong by bouncing back to qualify for Rio.

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Full disclosure…friend of the program.

Despite not making the final Leevan showed us that no matter what the situation is, once you put your mind to it, nothing can stop you from achieving your goal.

 

4. Emily Morley

I’ll be honest, I don’t know the first thing about rowing other than it’s done on a lake, you’re either in singles or in teams.

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Making the Google front page 1 row at a time.

Emily Morley is the first ever Bahamian to qualify for Rowing, placing herself in the Bahamian history books forever.

We hope that this starts a new trend of Bahamian athletes thinking outside the box and trying to participate in sports other than boxing, swimming, tennis, and track and field.

 

3. Chris Brown and the 4x400m relay team.

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Many people may not realize the great fortune that the Bahamas received when Great Britain and Trinidad and Tobago were disqualified in the prelims to the 4×400 meter relays.

Despite that the 4×400 meter men showed why the Bahamas will always be a force in the 4×400 meters…… Heart.

Newbold did a great job in anchoring the Bahamas in the heats, Alonzo Russell ran two great legs for the Bahamas, Matthieu pushed through, even though he said he felting like he sustained and injury on his leg and Stevie showed why he is the best quarter miler in the country right now.

Perhaps most importantly, Chris Brown ran the Bahamas through the line for the Bronze. I cant imagine what it feels like to be able to put your team on your back and win a medal for your country, but it must have felt surreal. He ends his Olympic career with four medals in the 4x400m relays, 1 Gold (London), 1 Silver (Beijing), and 2 Bronze (Sydney and Rio).

As Chris Brown said himself, “ All good stories must come to an end” but we can agree that he is one of the greatest Olympians to put on The Bahamian uniform.

 

2. Pedrya Seymour

Life is about expectations and in terms of expectation building and setting the stage for Tokyo in 2020, Seymour would be No.1 if not for “the dive.” For the casual Bahamian fan, Pedrya Seymour came out of nowhere (impossible to come from out of nowhere when you break the national record three times in a season, but I digress), the BIG 10 track star at Illinois put The Bahamas in the 100m Hurdles finals for the first time.

Bahamian Pedrya Seymour

No one expected her to be there, as she is new to the event, but that didn’t stop her from setting another national record 12.64 seconds in the semi finals.

At her young age of 21, the future is bright and will be on the radar of not only Bahamians, but the world after finishing 6th while clipping the last hurdle.

 

1. Shaunae Miller

I know, I know, I know, her race was the most memed and talked about moment on the track this year. We got a gold medal in the most thrilling sense and had to combat internet trolls all at the same time. It was a showdown between Felix and Miller that we had all hoped for replete with a new hashtag #cyc.

Shaunae is still in her prime for the upcoming Olympics in Tokyo where she will look to defend her title and face a slew of new challengers now that she’s defeated Felix for possibly the last time.

If you haven’t yet, it is time to jump on the bandwagon and respect the superstar she is complete with endorsements, an entourage and a 10YS podcast. The whole nine yards.

If she decided to start gearing her training toward attacking the 200m, 400m double, she has the possibility to go down as one of the greatest Bahamian track and field athletes of all time.

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