How Diaspora West Indians Use Track and Field to Lift
Countrymen (and Women!) from Poverty
“As the world watches this summer’s Paris Olympiad, even casual sports fans can’t help being thrilled, enthralled and enraptured by the skill and finesse top athletes bring to the competition. World records fall practically every hour. The Games go on; new stars are discovered and celebrated. Ancient ri- valries—some extending back centu- ries—are renewed.
Countries invest thousands of athlete training hours preparing for these Olympic weeks, and spend millions of dollars going all in, just to qualify for a chance to compete.
Poor, developing countries are at a huge disadvantage when competing for Olympic medals, or even qualify- ing their top athletes for an appearance at The Games. Some have learned to specialize, channeling all their resourc- es into a few events. For Ethiopia, the focus is on long-distance running,” “especially the marathon. For Indone- sia—badminton. Pakistan: field hock- ey. Turkey pegs its Olympic hopes on the martial arts, especially wrestling. For Israel, it’s judo.
Among the poorest nations, Jamai- ca may present the best example of what specializing brings. Independent since 1962, the largest English-speak- ing nation in the Caribbean, with a population of just under three mil- lion, has learned to excel in track and field events. Its runners, jumpers and discuss-hurlers–male and female— first medaled at the 1948 Games in London, where two Jamaicans took the gold and silver in the 400-meter sprints, both men running as British subjects. Over the next 72 years, Ja- maica has medaled 85 more times, a rate of success only one other former British colony—Kenya—has matched in the history of The Games. Nigeria, with almost 100 times”
“Jamaica’s population has managed a to- tal of 27 Olympic medals in 70 years. India, with over a billion more people, has won 35 medals.
Jamaica, joined by a few other Carib- bean states, also has learned how to deploy a secret weapon in their pur- suit of Olympic Excellence: a well-re- sourced Diaspora population in the US, UK and Canada that contributes strongly to the training and cultiva- tion of Olympic talent. Usain Bolt,” “once the fastest human alive, rose to greatness (and eight Olympic gold medals) with the assistance of these expatriate supporters. Hundreds more came before his first Olympic appear- ance, in Beijing in 2008, and hundreds more have followed since Bolt made his last Olympics in 2016 at Rio de Janeiro. His journey has been shared by thousands of Jamaicans who have contributed to the cause.
It all started 60 years ago, with a gag- gle of teenagers Jamaicans called The Drifters.
DRIFTING UP TO PHILADELPHIA
Jamaica gained its independence from Great Britain during the sum- mer of 1962. Which means the is- land was free barely over a year that Spring day in 1964 when six members of the Kingston College track squad boarded a plane bound for the Unit- ed States. The six teens, plus their school’s headmaster and one coach, were representing Jamaica’s premier” “preparatory high school, which was founded by religious leaders bent on helping boys from poor backgrounds take an important step towards high- er education.
The six athletes were bound for North America’s top showcase for track and field amateurs—the Penn Relays Car- nival, an annual Philadelphia event dating back to 1896. The team mem- bers dressed smartly in their grey trousers, black Oxford-laced shoes, purple blazers, white shirts and silk ties. “When that team picture hit the Jamaica Gleaner [Jamaica’s leading newspaper], people were calling us the Drifters” because the youths resem- bled the popular US recording group, one of the runners recalled years later.
The strict discipline of the school’s ac- ademic and sports programs unfolded under a simple motto: “The Brave May Fall, But Never Yield.” In Philadelphia the young men did neither.
Besides winning their event, the 4×100 relay, on the Carnival’s final” “day, the Kingston College runners blazed a trail for many more athletes to come. “Six guys went, and six guys got offered college scholarships,” re- calls Noel Spencer, a Kingston Col- lege alumnus now living in New York. Five, he adds, took advantage of those offers and began successful US careers (the lone holdout had al- ready decided to join the Rastafarian cult, skipping college altogether and returning to Jamaica, Spencer ex- plains). The college-bound went to track powers like University of Mich- igan, University of Southern Califor- nia and Michigan State.
Lennox Valencia Miller, who an- chored that winning 1964 relay squad, went on to USC, where he ex- celled athletically (and ran alongside future US football star O.J. Simpson on USC’s relay squad). Miller won the silver medal in the 100 meters in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexi- co and then a bronze four years later in Munich, both times representing Jamaica. His daughter, born in the US, struck gold at the 1996 Games in” “Atlanta running on the US women’s relay team.”
TEAM JAMAICA BICKLE
Thanks to those 1964 pioneers, a movement was born. Not only were Ja- maicans never again to miss the Penn Relays Carnival, but they also came in ever growing numbers as both partic- ipants and spectators. Moreover, they came to dominate many individual competitions, particularly for the high schoolers (male and female) who de- pend on the Penn Relays to win schol- arships to US universities. In some events, Jamaicans have dominated for decades.
Consider the Boys’ 4×100 relay, won by Kingston College in 1964—then again in 1965, 1966, ’73, ’74, 2013 and 2014. Since 2000, only four times has the event not been won by a Jamaican team, the exceptions being two wins for a squad from another Caribbean is- land, Trinidad, and twice by US teams.
The dominance by girls’ teams is just” “as complete. One single Jamaican school, Vere Technical in the parish of Clarendon has won the girls’ 4×100 thirteen straight times. Vere Tech girls have also sent three of their alumnae to gold medal victories in the Olympics. In 2004 in Athens, Veronica Camp- bell-Brown, Aleen Bailey and Bever- ly McDonald all competed. Veronica won a second gold again in 2008 in Beijing.
Vere Tech is also how I learned about Team Jamaica Bickle. It began about a year ago, with my neighbor Carole Dowling, a Vere Tech graduate who volunteers at the Poyser Way New Tes- tament Church of God, a venerable Philadelphia congregation founded in 1975 by West Indian emigrants. The church membership has grown into the hundreds and includes alumni of other Jamaican high schools and col- leges. Carole explained to me the work each alum does to make sure their school is represented at Penn Relays each year.
“This year we had about 600,” Carole told me, all high school athletes, not including school administrators and coaches. “We put them up in a hotel, provide meals and do other things for the kids.” The name of the non-profit organization formed 30 years ago to coordinate these, and other Diaspora support groups is Team Jamaica Bickle. “Bickle,” I learned, is a rural Jamaican word that closely matches the Amer- ican term “potluck.” To the Jamaican teenagers checking in for their first night in a hotel, “Bickle” means the cafeteria where typical Jamaican meals are served twice each day—at breakfast before the competition and at dinner afterwards. In between, Team Jamaica Bickle sets itself up as a command post next to the track meet, converting the University of Pennsylvania’s Palestra basketball arena into a Jamaican head- quarters for the duration of the Penn Relays Carnival.”
I recruit athletes from all over Jamaica,” she explains. In 2017 she brought Taska Johnson, a cross-country runner, who was the daughter of one of Turner’s high school teammates. “Taska now is an ac- countant. That’s to show you the journey these youngsters are taking. They become doctors and lawyers and coaches and all that good stuff. It’s amazing how much one little team can push you.””
“To call the Penn Relays “Jamaican” is not an exaggeration. In fact, it’s almost an un- derstatement. An estimated 40,000 Ca- ribbean fans are in attendance each year and 2024 was no exception. The throngs of spectators cheering on Jamaican ath- letes come from across the United States. They attract other Jamaicans as vendors marketing wares to the fans, and as do- nors who support Team Jamaica Bickle’s efforts. The atmosphere is festive—with reggae music blaring and the aroma of meat patties, peas and rice, jerk chicken and ginger punch rising from the cafe- teria. Ackee and saltfish, callaloo, curry goat, hard dough bread and yam are also on the menu. Team Jamaica Bickle, found- ed in 1994 by two Jamaican businessmen” “based in the US, describes its mission as cultivating young athletes not merely to compete in the Olympics, but also to earn athletic scholarships at top US universi- ties, which will also provide these young men and women with an education and the means to excel long after their racing days are over.
“These are life-changing things,” says Rainford “Perry” Bloomfield, a Kingston native now based in Philadelphia who as- sists Team Jamaica Bickle by providing the athletes with bus transportation during the Carnival. Bigger donors include Tow- er Isle foods, Jamaica’s National Bank and Caribbean Food Delights. Events by smaller Diaspora collaborators yield about” “$250,000 in cash, which largely defrays the costs of lodging, transportation and meals for the athletes.
PASSING THE BATON
Team Jamaica Bickle’s motto is “Our Ath- letes, Our Ambassadors” by which they mean ambassadors not only at major sporting events like the Paris Olympics but to the world at large. “What goes around comes back around, it’s a circle,” explains another Vere Tech alum, Inez Turner. “We learn to share.”
Inez Turner grew up in abject poverty in Trelawny, rural Jamaica, on a farm so poor she and five sisters learned to cap- ture rainwater just to be able to launder” “their clothes. “The way we got the schol- arship: go run before we did the chores. Then hurry up and milk the cows and we would have to run to school. Every day 13-14 miles. That’s how I got a scholar- ship to Vere Tech. Vere Tech heard of the Turner Sisters,” she recalls. Two sisters and a cousin joined her as boarding students, which led to her spectacular debut at the 1989 Penn Relays, which led to a collegiate scholarship and a long career in the US.
That has allowed Inez Turner to continue her efforts helping others. Today she’s the” “Women’s Sports Administrator and Head Cross Country/Track & Field Coach for Fayetteville State University in North Car- olina. Herself a former Olympian (1996), she’s always on the lookout for Caribbean talent she can recruit at her school or re- fer to other coaches looking for runners. “Athletes get seen at the Penn Relays and colleges recruit them, especially import- ant for poor athletes,” she adds. “I was re- cruited heavily as a result of Penn Relays.” She says it’s not simply about grabbing a shot at an Olympic medal, but of the rest of one’s life.” “So, who are the Jamaicans to watch for this summer in Paris? Who might be the next Usain Bolt?
It might be 19-year-old Jaydon Hibbert, a Kingston College triple jumper who made his Penn Relays debut two years ago. Hibbert also was a scholarship student as a high schooler, recruited to Kingston College from the neighborhood of Ar- nett Gardens, a rough area of Jamaica’s capital known locally as “The Concrete Jungle.” Hibbert went from his Penn Re- lays success (triple jump winner in 2022) to a spectacular career at the University of Arkansas.
In 2023 he became the youngest athlete ever to receive the Bowerman award as college track’s athlete of the year. That vic- tory compelled Hibbert to announce he’s leaving Arkansas to launch his profession- al track career.
His first act as a pro: launching a fund for indigent students at Kingston College. In March he presented five students with
$1000 (US) each.”
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