A great day to be a West Indian

Now I realise what David Rudder meant when he sang,…Little keys can open up mighty doors,” in Rally ’round the West Indies. That sentiment transcends cricket and surely defines this Olympics where these little islands pulled off some mighty achievements. It wasn’t just the medals. It was all those finals that featured West Indians starting with George Bovell III.



To think that a Trini can count himself as one of the fastest swimmers in the world is enough to make my head swim. Yes, medals are nice, but the Olympics were about so much more than medals. The Olympics were about that special honour of being something more than a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago cheering on the local team. It was about a feeling that transcends nationalism and spreads out into regionalism. If the Olympics didn’t make you feel like a West Indian, then I fear nothing will.



It is impossible to separate the feeling of pride in Lalonde Gordon’s bronze medal for Trinidad and Tobago in the 400 metres from the pride  we felt in a clean, Caribbean sweep in that race with Luguelin Santos of the Dominican Republic winning a silver medal and Kirani James of Grenada winning a gold medal. 



How sweet it was to close our eyes and imagine Grenada celebrating its first gold medal in history. Months from now we’ll still envision Kirani James standing on the podium singing Grenada’s national anthem with all his heart. Little Grenada became the smallest nation in the Olympics to win a gold medal. That is West Indian pride.



       
In the Olympics, we were more than a scattering of islands in the Caribbean Sea. We were an undeniable presence in so many track and field finals. We were “little keys opening mighty doors.” Even the US, which tends to ignore the rest of the world’s Olympic achievements, couldn’t resist the charismatic pull of Jamaica’s Usain Bolt. And how about those Jamaicans who ran riveting races with Bolt capturing the 100 metres and his training partner Yohan Blake earning a silver?



By the time the Jamaicans swept the 200 metres taking every medal in the race, sports announcers were calling the winner, Bolt, a living legend. Didn’t it seem like the Jamaicans owned the track? Yes, the Jamaicans ruled, but their victories transcended nation and became West Indian victories.



The Olympics are a time where we cheer on everyone from the West Indies: Jamaicans, Grenadians—and even the Spanish Caribbean like Cuba and the Dominican Republic. There is a heightened sense of what it means to be a West Indian.
There are those who focus on the medal count and the tally that shows the countries at the top of the heap, but the West Indies captured the essence of the Olympics as a place where any nation can shine.



The Olympics spout rhetoric about camaraderie and competition on a world stage, but it is when little Caribbean islands keep pounding the pavement and stroking the waves, throwing a javelin and leaping across hurdles that we realise we can’t be ignored in this world. We count.



Our presence brings another dimension to the games and to the world. We are more than a fun-loving bunch of Carnival masqueraders. We can compete with those who are propelled by complex political and economic machines that we can never match. The West Indies presence in this Olympics brought a refreshing new excitement to tired sports troubled by scandalous allegations of cheating.



There is no way to convey our appreciation to all the West Indian athletes who have sacrificed so much of their young lives for a dream that so many people must have told them they can never achieve. I can’t imagine many people saying, “Sure, you have a great chance of winning against an American or Russian or Chinese.” They all demonstrated perseverance and pride that will inspire a whole new generation of West Indian competitors to dream of competing in the Olympics.



The Olympics proved that anything is possible—if you put your heart and soul in it. No obstacle is too great. No country is too large to conquer. Those are invaluable lessons for little islands with a common history defined by colonialism. That history is never forgotten. You could see it in the faces of West Indian supporters living in England who cheered on the West Indies they have left behind. This is not over just because the Olympics have come to an end. This is merely another stage for West Indians to shine.



All over the Caribbean there are children who carry the memories of these Olympics with them as they run and jump and swim and dream of being an Olympic athlete. Their dreams sweep across the Caribbean to all those athletes who won or made the finals. Our Caribbean children ponder all those glorious moments and in those dreams the boundaries of these islands blur into a wave of pride for West Indian glory that goes beyond the boundary of cricket. It is a good day to be a West Indian.

source: trinidad guardian