Sitting there quietly watching the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) officials announce a powerful 63-member team to the Rio Olympics recently at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in St Andrew, Dr Cynthia Thompson had a pleasant smile on her face.

It was a smile that brought back memories of some 68 years ago when she was one of only 10 athletes selected to represent the small island at its first-ever Olympic Games in 1948.

It was also a smile of satisfaction to see how her early input at that London Games paved the way for Jamaica’s current world domination in the sprints.

Thompson, who made that arduous two-week boat ride across the Atlantic to London, is now the oldest living Jamaican Olympian.

“I feel honoured and I feel blessed that I survived some of my colleagues and I am thankful that I have lived to see the new era of all these champions that we are creating,” Dr Thompson told the Jamaica Observer.

“I hope that God will bless them and that they will keep on passing the baton and continue making records and as Usain (Bolt) says, tracks and records and continue to keep Jamaica’s name high, high, real high,” she emphasised.

Thompson, who was born in 1922 and will be 94 years old on November 29, is the first Jamaican female to make an Olympic Games 100m final where she finished sixth in 12.6 seconds.

Thompson, who was ranked fourth going into the Olympics, would later reveal she was extremely weak because the two-week boat ride took its toll on her body. The race was won by Fanny Blankers-Koen of The Netherlands in 11.9 seconds.

That year, Jamaica won three medals courtesy of a gold and two silver, and placed ninth overall out of 53 countries.

Jamaica, still under British rule, surprised the world finishing first and second in the men’s 400m as Arthur Wint struck gold in an Olympic record of 46.2 seconds with Herb McKenley narrowly behind in second with 46.4 seconds. Wint would return to grab silver in the 800m in 1:49.2 minutes behind American Mal Whitfield with 1:49.2 minutes.

“Someone has to start and I hope that I did my duty well so that other athletes coming after can build on a strong foundation,” said Dr Thompson, a retired paediatrician.

She expressed her pride at the magnificent performances of the current crop of athletes.

“Everybody is a Jamaican when we are doing well. My head is swelling. I feel so blessed and so proud to see this little nation, that people don’t know where it is on the map, can be head and shoulders above all the large nations and doing so creditably,” said a doting Thompson.

“In those days there was little or no doping evidence, and as time went on that increased, especially with the financial gains that could be made.

“I lift my hat off to those who avoided that and came through the slate clean, especially to Usain Bolt,” she noted.

“They have been treating him and sticking him and probing him backward and forward and have not yet been able to find anything that is banned or disallowed. I salute him,” she added.

Dr Thompson, who was dubbed the “West Indian Thunderbolt”, is a past student of St Hugh’s High School and joined her schoolmate Vinton Beckett as two of the four pioneering ladies who made that first Olympic trip. The other two were Carmen Phipps and Kathleen Russell.