Cuba has topped the list of seven Caribbean countries that appear on the final medal table from the Summer Olympic Games, which ended in Tokyo on Sunday, according to the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).
It said the Spanish-speaking Caribbean country won 15 medals as Caribbean nations finished with 15 gold, seven silver and nine bronze.
For the Cubans, CMC said their gold came in boxing, through Andy Cruz, Julio la Cruz, Arlen Lopez and Roniel Iglesias, along with three-gold medal performance in rowing, allowed them to end in 14th place on the overall medal table.
The other Caribbean nations on the medal table were Jamaica, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Grenada, CMC said.
It said all but one of the medals won by this group of countries came in athletics.
Gold medal winners Elaine Thompson-Herah and Hansle Parchment of Jamaica, Shaunae Miller-Uibo and Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas, along with Puerto Rican Jasmin Camacho-Quinn, all made history, according to CMC.
It said Thompson-Herah became the first to complete a 100-200 metres “double-double”, and Parchment made Jamaica the first country other than the United States, to win the 110 metres hurdles in successive Olympic Games.
That feat was last accomplished by the USA in 1988, when Roger Kingdom retained the title he won in 1984, CMC said.
“Miller-Uibo and Gardiner gave the Bahamas the honor of being the first Caribbean country to win both 400 meters gold medals in the same Games since 1984,” it said.
Camacho-Quinn is Puerto Rico’s first Olympic champion in athletics, CMC said.
“Jamaica’s medal haul of four gold, one silver and four bronze earned Thompson-Herah and her compatriot’s fifth place on the athletics medal table, behind the United States, Italy, Kenya and Poland,” it said, stating that the USA won seven gold, 12 silver and seven bronze medals.
“There are no words to describe what you have achieved,” CMC qyoted Tokyo 2020 president, Seiko Hashimoto, as saying. “You have accepted what seemed unimaginable, understood what had to be done, and through hard work and perseverance overcome unbelievable challenges.”
“For the first time since the pandemic began, the entire world came together,” said International Olympic Committee President, Thomas Bach. “Nobody has ever organized a postponed Games before.”
