The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

RIO de Janeiro, Brazil — Veteran sprinter Pauline Davis-Thompson has always been very passionate when it comes down to expressing her views on the sport of track and field.

But the International Amateur Athletic Federation’s councilwoman was even more emotional when she sat in the stands at the Olympic Stadium to watch as Lanece Clarke, Anthonique Strachan, Carmiesha Cox and Christine Amertil made history as the first female team to compete for the Bahamas in the women’s 4 x 400 metre relay.

On Friday night, the team didn’t advance to the final, finishing sixth in heat two in 3:26.36 for a new national record, while placing 11th overall.

“I wanted to put on my spikes and go out there and run with those girls,” said Davis-Thompson as she tried to hold back the tears. “This was something that I was working towards for years and now it’s finally here. We have a team competing in the Olympic Games.

“People don’t know, but I always loved running the relays because I believe the Bahamian people enjoy watching the success that we’ve had in those events for years. I’m just sorry that I never got a chance to run in a race at the games, but I’m very happy for the young women who represented us tonight.”

As a five-time Olympian. Davis-Thompson has only had the chance to compete on the women’s 4 x 100 metre team that became famously known as the “Golden Girls” after the squad of Davis-Thompson, Sevatheda Fynes, Eldece Clarke,

Chandra Sturrup and Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie were crowned back-to-back champions at the IAAF World Championships in Seville, Spain in 1999 and the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia in 2000.

Before that, the same group of women emerged on the Olympic scene as the silver medallist to the United States in Atlanta, Georgia in 1996.

Yet, even before that, Davis-Thompson was primarily the face of the women’s sprints, representing the Bahamas in just about every major international competition as the lone female competitor.

“It was very difficult being the only female athlete representing the country before the Golden Girls came along,” Davis-Thompson said. “But of all of the accomplishments that I achieved, I was very disappointed that I didn’t get to run the 4 x 400m relay at the Olympics.”

Winner of her only individual medal at the Olympics in Sydney when she got silver behind Marion Jones, but was later elevated to the gold when the American was stripped of her medals because of a positive banned substance, Davis-Thompson can be remembered for her exploits in the 4 x 4 when the Bahamas hosted the Carifta Games in Nassau when she got the baton in the middle of the pack and she virtually ran down the field to clinch the gold, adding to her triumph in both the 100 and 200m that led to her being named the Austin Sealy Most Outstanding Athlete of the games.

Then a runner for the Government High School, Davis-Thompson went on to excel at the University of Alabama, winning numerous NCAA indoor and outdoor titles before she had a brief sting as a collegiate and elite coach in the United States.

She has since returned home where she’s now coaching at the club level, trying to get more grassroot athletes into the sport to give them a chance to excel just as she was given that exposure through fellow LW Young High team-mate Frank Rutherford, who introduced her to coach Neville Wisdom of the Baintown Flyers Track Club and the rest as they say, is history.

While she would have also been successful in winning the IAAF World Championships silver medal in the 400m in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1995 and the IAAF World Indoor Championship 200m in Maebashi in 1999, no one can argue her dedication and commitment to the sport, which has led her to occupy a seat on the IAAF Council for the past two terms.

But as she roamed through the VIP Lounge and segment of the stands at the stadium, Davis-Thompson said she was confronted by a number of persons who wanted to know what has happened to the women’s 4 x 100m relay teams since the departure of the “Golden Girls.”

She noted that it was a concern of her own as well because she was disappointed to see how some of the athletes today are being “influenced by their managers, coaches and agents” to perform in meets and events where the Bahamas is not feeling the full brink of their success.

Case in point, Davis-Thompson said there’s no excuse for the Bahamas not to have qualified for all four relays, considering the fact that a golden opportunity for the women was missed at the IAAF World Relays in Nassau last year when the top sprinters opted to contest the 4 x 200m and not the 4 x 100m.

All the team had to do was advance to the final and they would have booked their ticket to the Olympics. Instead, the women’s 4 x 100m never really got to run their best team over the past year due to a few injuries. The women’s 4 x 400m had to compete in the Blue Marlin Invitational and wait on the ruling of Russia in the court of arbitration to find out about their fate here.

“We have to remember that we have to put our country above self when it comes to competing at these international meets like the IAAF and Olympics,” Davis-Thompson stressed. “We have to impress among those persons who are dealing with our athletes today that the focus should be on country first and doing what is best for the Bahamas and not as individuals.”

Peeved by what she has seen developing where the sprinters today are more concerned about all of the “long and fashion statement in their hairs” and not just Bahamians, but athletes in general, Davis-Thompson said that seems to be one of the areas where the athletes differ from when she competed.

“We just wanted to go out there and do whatever was necessary to win,” she said. “Nowadays, everybody is focusing on how long their hair is to their hip and it’s becoming a distraction because they are putting too much emphasis into it.”

But as one who has been there and done it, Davis-Thompson said she will continue to offer her advice and guidelines to whoever wants to accept it. She said she can’t afford to let the next generation of Bahamian sprinters and female quarter-milers not be given the best opportunity to compete and continue to keep the Bahamas on the map in international athletics.