Biography of Dr Arthur Wint: Jamaican Olympic Athlete

Derice Bannock created the first Jamaican bobsled team that consisted of his best friend, Sanka Coffie, and the other two sprinters, Yul Brenner and Junior Bevil. The team’s coach was

It has featured in the well-known Summer Olympics since 1896, but it wasn’t until 1964 that the first female 400m race was run.

“Final call girl’s four by eight-hundred-meter relay” called the official. The Ontario Track girl’s four by eight-meter team trooped up to lane one, in unison. I would not have wanted to be racing with anyone else but my relay family. We had trained all season for this one race. Every workout, asthma attack, tear, and shin splint has lead up to this one race to break a twenty year old school record. As we jogged with the official from the bullpen to the starting line, the crowd had uproars of excitement for the athletes. An immense smile grew across my face, not only from the ecstatic crowd, but from the anticipation to race. I approached the starting line, in the first lane, while my teammates arrayed along the fence with the other second,

The 1972 Olympics basketball finals in Munich remains one of the most controversial Olympic games in history. Controversies of this match took both a sporting and political angle at the time because the two finalists, team USA and team USSR, came from a background of political competitions by virtue of them being the two most powerful nations on earth. The controversy happened in three “final three seconds.” Whatever happened to the medals remain equally controversial.

There are quite a few factors that shaped the modern-day Olympics from 1892 to 2002. Pierre de Coubertin states that he wanted to create the Olympics to spread world peace. He does this by substituting war for friendly sports competitions (doc 1). Of course, there were some bumps in the road while trying to achieve this utopia. Some factors that have changed the Olympics are the allowing of women being able to compete in the Olympics, women’s suffrage, nationalism, wars, and economic conditions (doc 2-7).

Jim Thorpe is a super hero of sports. He is a man who has a love for sports. He has played many sports, and is a true hero in the sports world. He was not only amazing at track and football, but he was also very good at swimming, lacrosse, basketball, wrestling, golf, and tennis. He was born May 28, 1887, and was born near a town called Prague in Oklahoma. His father was a farmer, and his name was Hiram Thorpe. His mother was a Potawatomi Indian named Mary James. Thorpes Native American name was Wa­Tho­Huk, which means “bright path.” He started off very young with great athletic abilities. This showed when he learned to ride horses and swim at the age of 3. Jim loved the outdoors as a boy, especially hunting. Jim had a twin brother, and they were very close. His brother was named Charlie. In 1904 Thorpe and his brother started school in Carlisle Industrial School in Pennsylvania. Whenever they were in school Charlie enjoyed it, but Jim did not. He wasn’t very good so Charlie had to help him through. At the age of 9 Charlie got sick and ended up dying. Thorpe was heartbroken he wanted to quit school. He even ended up running twenty­three miles’ home to his parents. Whenever he first started his athletic career at his school he played football and track. In 1907 he proved his amazing abilities whenever he jumped over a high jump pole 5 feet 9 inches. At first Thorpe was never given the opportunity to try out for the team. Whenever he walked by the varsity players practicing

Throughout the history of the Olympic games, there has been many changes on how the Olympic Games has come to be interpreted and how they are generally viewed in our modern era. These views range from, Nationalism fueled by the Olympic Games, Women trying to create equality through the Olympic Games, Economic supremacy shown by the Olympic games and the responsibilities held by countries and the self-preservation of a country when presenting the Olympic games. Each view states an interpretation of the Olympic games through the years of 1892-2002 showing a distinct view on the Olympic games depending on the times they were hosted at such as when the Olympic Games were hosted when women weren’t equal to men or who the Games were hosted

Brown, Daniel. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. New York: Penguin, 2014. Print.

During the 1960 Olympic Games, Wilma beat several of her running records. In the 100m dash, she beat her record of 11.3 seconds and finished with 11.0 seconds which lead her to get her first gold medal. In the 200m dash she beat the world record and got 23.2 seconds but at the finals, she ended up getting the time of 24.0 seconds and got another gold medal for that. She was also in the 4*4 relay and her individual time was 44.4 seconds and she also got another gold medal for that relay. (“Wilma Rudolph

That day he won four events, set three world records, and he tied a fourth record all in forty-five minutes. He tied the world record by running the one hundred yard dash in nine point four-seconds. He then broke a world record by jumping twenty-six feet eight and one quarter inches in the long jump. Later, he finished the two hundred twenty yard dash in twenty point three-seconds for another world record. That same day, he broke a third world record by finishing the two hundred twenty yard low hurdle race in twenty-two point six seconds.(Shwartz 1) He was so outstanding at track and field, that during his junior year of college he won every single one of the forty-two events in which he competed. Three of those events were Olympic trials for the 1936 Olympics (“About Jesse Owens” 3) guarantying that he would be going to Berlin to compete for a medal.

     Another Track and Field event is the long jump. This event differed very greatly from the jumping we see today. The jumpers would have a running start and be holding weights in their hands for momentum purposes. The use of the weights, which were swung about during the run and jump, caused the jumper to have a much larger distance than the athletes of the modern Olympics. In fact, the ancient jumping events are highly controversial because of the ludicrous records found about the distance of the jumps in ancient Greece. One record states that a contestant jumped 55 feet. The modern record for the running long jump is near 30 feet and it seems to many track and field experts that it would be quite impossible for anyone to jump 55 feet, even with the help of an impetus. Some

"Equipment and History." Olympics | Olympic Medals Results Videos Sports News | IOC. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2013.

Greatness in sports is a status that only very few reach, however to be labeled the greatest athlete of all time is for that one soul individual who excels at all aspects of the game and exceeds every other player in that sport. In my exploratory essay I established what makes an athlete the greatest athlete of all time. In the following paragraph I am going to summarize what makes an athlete the greatest athlete of all time. For the sake of the argument to follow I am going to stick with just the NFL. When I look at the NFL one name comes to mind when thinking about the greatest NFL player of all time. His name is Tom Brady. Tom Brady is the greatest of all time.

The Nazi Olympics in Berlin in 1936 destroyed Hitler’s master race history. "There was very definitely a special feeling in winning the gold medal and being a black man," Woodruff said. "We destroyed [Hitler's] master race theory whenever we started winning those gold medals,” said runner John Woodruff (7). John Woodruff was a black man who won a gold medal. Another African American Jesse Owens won four track and field gold medals. These two people defied the Aryan ideal that Hitler believed that Aryan dominated the world. Another important impact the Olympic brought happened in 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia. In that Olympics, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon refused to participate because of a dispute over the Suez Canal; Spain, Switzerland, and the Netherlands boycotted the Games in protest over the Soviet Union's invasion of Hungary; China boycotted the Games because a flag of Taiwan was raised in the Olympic Village. The original purpose of the Olympics was to make the countries collaborate, however, it also brought negative impacts. Another example is that Olympics in Mexico city in 1968. Americans politicised the Games by letting two African Americans, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, represent the United States. Tommie Smith and John Carlos placed first and third in the track and field. During their medal ceremony, they raised a clenched fist above their

While there are clear contrasts between the ancient and the modern Olympics there is still the respect for the athlete striving to perform at the highest level. Today, the Olympic Games are the world's largest carnival of athletic skill and competitive spirit. They are displays of nationalism, commerce, and politics. These important elements of the Olympics are not a modern invention, as the first Olympics was in 776 BC in Ancient Greece. After 1503 years, in 1896 the Olympic Games were recreated as what we know today. The Ancient Games were once dedicated to the Olympian God, Zeus Olympios and were staged on the ancient plains of Olympia, which is also how the word ‘Olympics’ originated from. The modern Olympics is the largest international sporting event, which feature both summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of respectable athletes from over 200 different nations compete against one another. There are clear contrast between the modern and ancient forms of the Olympic Games regarding uniforms, participants, religion, events, politics and the concept of amateurism. However both the Ancient Greeks and the people in the modern world still respect and admire the athletics achievements of the participants making the Olympics the most highly regarded contest in sport.