Firstpost Explains: How does Jamaica consistently produce world-class sprinters?

There’s a theory that is offered—only half-jokingly—every time someone asks why Jamaica is able to consistently produce world-class sprinters like Usain Bolt, Elaine Thompson, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Warren Weir and Yohan Blake. It’s the yams! According to  some researchers, the hyposteroids present in yams—a tuber vegetable found widely in Jamaica―are what make Jamaican runners streak to victory on the running track, pipping runners from more developed countries and more populous nations in their slipstream (For those interested in comparisons, Jamaica’s population of 2.97 million pales in comparison to Mumbai’s population of 12 million, as per the 2011 Census). Of course, it’s slightly more nuanced than that. There are a bunch of other theories offered to explain Jamaica’s dominance of sprint events in athletics, ranging from the high amount of testosterone to the body shape of Jamaican athletes. On being asked, Yohan Blake, the second-fastest man in the world ever, offered a simple answer. “I think the way I was brought up (helped me become successful). We were very, very poor. We had to work ourselves out of poverty. Education wasn’t the way to do it. It was just sports. So it was just natural. When we were young we would spend a lot of time outdoors, running with cars,”  Blake told _Firstpost_  in December 2019 when he was in Mumbai to promote the Road Safety World Series, a T20 cricket event. Not surprisingly, every world-class Jamaican sprinter has a rags-to-riches story. From Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce to Usain Bolt, everyone has a tale of early struggles. But if the early motivation for Jamaicans to become a sprinter came from wanting to run themselves out of poverty (literally!), the platform to succeed at the world stage lies in a high-school competition called the Inter-Secondary Schools Boys and Girls Championships, more popularly known as ‘The Champs’. “The Champs was where it all started. The tournament where you became a man from a boy. It’s one of the biggest high school championships in the world. If you went there you would see runners of the calibre of Bolt, Fraser-Pryce, Veronica Campbell, Elaine Thompson taking part. All these runners emerged from the Champs,” Blake told Firstpost. The Champs, a competition that has been around since 1910, is an annual affair held over four days at Kingston’s National Stadium. Despite it being a high-school event, it attracts crowds of over 30,000 on all days (all of whom buy tickets to watch the event), not to mention television crews and live broadcast on Jamaican national television—all factors which prepare young runners for the harsh glare of the spotlight and the pressures of expectation. The Champs were cancelled just like most sports events in 2020 due to the coronavirus, but when it returned in 2021, there was even a fantasy league created around it, showing just how popular it is. Moreover, many American colleges send their scouts to the Champs to offer scholarships to runners of the highest potential. “Competing at the Champs taught me a lot about winning and losing. The competition there is impressive. You get to race against the best, not just in the finals. You would meet fast runners in the semis as well,” said Blake. Not surprisingly Bolt, in his autobiography Faster Than Lightning, calls the Champs the ‘heartbeat of Jamaican track and field success.’ With Champs occupying such an important place in the national consciousness, schools were keen to scout for talented youngsters who could represent them at the competition and win them medals. Once they found a talented youngster, they would often offer to subsidise their education with scholarships. Bolt himself was given a scholarship after a popular school, William Knibb, saw his talent. Of course, there is one last factor that goes into making a country of just under three million people world-beaters in sprint racing: coaches. Thanks to former Jamaican PM Michael Manley, Jamaica has had the GC Foster College of Physical Education and Sports since 1980. It was the conveyor belt producing good coaches in track and field, who would then scout and nurture talented sprinters. Jamaican sprinters have always been world-class. While the island nation only got independence from England in 1962, their sprinters had won medals at the 1948 London Games and the 1952 Helsinki Games. Arthur Wint won Jamaica’s first-ever gold medal in the 400m event at London, then combined with Leslie Laing, Herb McKenley, and George Rhoden to set a world record en route to winning another gold in the 4x400m relay at Helsinki four years later. But since the Bolt era began, Jamaica’s dominance in sprinting has been unparalleled. When the deferred Tokyo 2020 Olympics come along, for the first time since 2008, Bolt will not be leading the charge for the Jamaican sprinters. There won’t be any Jamaican sprinter in the top 10 of the men’s 100m or 200m rankings as well. Hoping to emerge out of his shadows will be the second-fastest man in history, Blake (who has found himself embroiled in a vaccine controversy in the build-up to the Games). But the women’s sprinters from Jamaica appear more than ready to take over the baton in Jamaica’s first Bolt-less Olympics in a long time. Double Olympic champion Fraser-Pryce—who in June, ran the 100m in 10.63secs, the second-fastest time ever—is currently ranked No 1 in the 100m, while compatriot Elaine Thompson-Herah and Jonielle Smith are also in the top 10 spots. Thompson-Herah is the double Olympic gold medallist from Rio Olympics who swept the 100m and 200m sprints, while Fraser-Pryce was third in the 200m. Bolt or no Bolt, Jamaica’s sprinters are expected to scorch the running track at Tokyo’s Olympics Stadium in a month’s time. When they do, and the conversation inevitably turns to Jamaica’s sprinting success, remember, it’s not all about the yams!