Jamaican Olympian Dr Cynthia Thompson is dead
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica’s oldest living Olympian Dr Cynthia Thompson has passed away.
OBSERVER ONLINE understands that she passed away earlier today in hospital at 96 years old.
Thompson was one of 10 athletes selected to represent the island at its first-ever Olympic Games in London, England, in 1948.
She became the first Jamaican female to make an Olympic Games 100 metre final where she finished sixth in 12.6 seconds after making an arduous two-week boat ride across the Atlantic to London, suffering from sea sickness and severely weakened by a loss of weight.
“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 just prior to the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“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 said.
