The Bahamas finishes second to Bermuda

TOKYO, Japan – You may have heard the phrase by now, “The Bahamas won the Olympics”. It’s gracing a number of social media sites and outlets in the wake of the two gold medals won by the nation at the Tokyo Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

Well, that’s not exactly true. Even per capita, The Bahamas bows to Bermuda, who, with its one gold medal in the women’s individual triathlon won by Flora Duffy, finished with an average of one gold medal every 63,918 people. The Bahamas finished second per capita with two gold medals, and one every 196,622 people. New Zealand rounded out the top three, finishing with seven gold medals, and one every 688,890 people.

Coming in fourth was Slovenia with three gold medals and one every 692,979 people. Caribbean sister nation Jamaica rounded out the top five with four gold medals and one every 740,291 people.

The Bahamas is no stranger to top three finishes in gold medals per capita at the Olympics, though. In fact, The Bahamas has come out on top in three of the last six Olympics in gold medals per capita and was second in two of the other three, truly establishing this tiny nation as one of the greatest athletic nations in the world when one considers its small size.

On another occasion, in 1964, in Tokyo, the late Sir Durward Knowles and the late Cecil Cooke captured gold in Star class sailing and The Bahamas emerged as the per capita champions of that Olympics as well. That was also the year The Bahamas had its highest ranking in the gold medal tally of the medal standings, finishing in a three-way tie with Ethiopia and India at number 24. This year, The Bahamas finished tied for 42nd with Kosovo.

A German journalist once said: “The Bahamas – small country, great athletes.”

Here in Tokyo, that saying proved true once again as The Bahamas held its own against much larger nations.

The two gold medals, won by Steven Gardiner and Shaunae Miller-Uibo in the men’s and women’s 400 meters (m), respectively, matched the most ever gold medals won by The Bahamas at a single Olympics, duplicating the feat from 2000 in Sydney, Australia.

With two other finalists, Devynne Charlton finishing sixth in the women’s 100m hurdles final and Miller-Uibo eighth in the women’s 200m final, it’s safe to say that Tokyo is second only to Sydney in overall performance for The Bahamas at the Olympics.

A lot of historic milestones were accomplished in Tokyo, though. For the first time ever, The Bahamas won two individual gold medals at the Olympics. For the first time ever, The Bahamas had two athletes competing in a single hurdles event at the Olympics and both moved on to the semifinals. Charlton took it a step further and advanced to the final and finished sixth. For the first time ever, an athlete repeated as Olympic champion and Miller-Uibo is also the first ever to win two individual medals and two individual gold medals at the Olympics. For the first time ever, The Bahamas won gold in the men’s 400m and for the first time ever the country won gold in the same event in both genders, gradually establishing itself as the quarter-mile capital of the world. For the first time ever, The Bahamas broke an area record at the Olympics.

Those are just some of the breakthroughs for the 15-member Bahamian team in Tokyo.

In total medals, The Bahamas matched its second-best effort at the Olympics, trailing just the three the country won in Sydney to start off the new millennium.

That 2000 team had 25 members. There were just 16 representing The Bahamas in Tokyo – the country’s smallest team since the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, when 14 traveled to compete for The Bahamas.

The Bahamas has won 16 total medals at the Olympics over the years – eight gold, two silver and six bronze. No country as small as The Bahamas has won as many Olympic medals and certainly not as many gold.

This year, much larger countries such as the Ukraine, India, South Africa, Ethiopia, Argentina, Nigeria and Mexico, just to name a few, were pale in comparison to The Bahamas in gold medal count.

With a number of young stars on the horizon, not just in athletics but across the board, it’s likely that the global success of Bahamian athletes will continue.

Due to the coronavirus COVID-19, this Olympic cycle only stretches three years.

The Games of the 33rd Olympiad is set for July 26 to August 11, 2024, in Paris, France. 

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