The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubs@tribunemedia.net

Team Bahamas, led by gold medallists Steven Gardiner and Shaunae Miller-Uibo, will be returning home on Thursday for national celebrations for their performances at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

The games, postponed from last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, closed out on Sunday after Gardiner, 25, and Miller-Uibo, 27, produced the pair of gold medals in the men’s and women’s 400 metres back-to-back in two days at the Tokyo National Stadium.

They enabled the Bahamas national anthem to be played within one hour on the same day of the medal presentation, pushing the county to 12th place in athletics and tied for 42nd overall with Kosovo and a ranking of 66 in the world.

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Iram Lewis and the Bahamas Government had to swing into high mood to prepare for the arrival of the athletes.

He indicated that they were originally informed that the athletes would not be returning until after the World Athletics’ Diamond League.

However, Lewis said Miller-Uibo has decided to shut down her season and return home and Gardiner has consented to join her.

He said they are also anticipating that other members of Team Bahamas will be making the trip home for the celebrations.

“We have all of the relevant partners with the Ministry of Sports taking the lead, the Bahamas Olympic Committee, the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations, the office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Tourism all coming together to make this happen with some other corporate sponsors,” Lewis said.

The team is expected to arrive on a Bahamasair flight that leaves Fort Lauderdale, Florida at 10:45am. On their arrival, a reception will take place at the Lynden Pindling International Airport.

The team is expected to then make courtesy calls on Prime Minister Hubert Minnis and Governor General Cornelius A Smith at Government House.

The athletes, according to Lewis, will be staying at one of the top resorts in the country, either Atlantis on Paradise Island or Baha Mar or Breezes on Cable Beach.

It’s expected that the athletes will also be awarded by the Bahamas Government for their performances as medal winners and Devynne Charlton for making the final of the women’s 100m hurdles where she placed sixth in her Olympic debut.

“We will hold off on a motorcade that was in the planning for Friday because of a tropical storm that is heading our way,” Lewis said. “Based on reports from the Met Department, they are predicting an 80 percent rain to fall on Friday.

“So we are looking at moving the motorcade and other public events for either Monday or Tuesday. We want to give the public an opportunity to share in the celebrations for our athletes, but we want to make sure that we do it in a safe manner.”

Lewis, who participated in both the 1996 and 2000 Olympics as a sprinter for the Bahamas, lauded the performances of Gardiner, who clinched his first Olympic gold medal – the first by any individual Bahamian male – to go along with his World Championship title he won in 2019 in Doha, Qatar and Miller-Uibo, who repeated as champion after first winning her title in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Minnis, in his national address on Monday night, also praised the two athletes for their stellar performances, as well as the other members of Team Bahamas.

“They demonstrated to the world that Bahamians have more than the will and the determination to survive,” he said. “We have the willpower to overcome. We have the endurance, the stamina and the willpower to triumph in the face of adversity.”

The athletes, like the country in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, faced many trials, doubts and setbacks in many difficult nights and days, but they summoned their resilience and their courage and their fortitude and they were victorious.