Jamaican athletes have won 87 medals from all 16 Olympics Games in the modern era, starting in 1948 when post-war London hosted the event, with all but one of those — David Weller’s cycling bronze at the 1980 games in Moscow — being won in track and field.

The total tally, including the nine-medal haul at the just-concluded Tokyo Olympics, reads 26 gold, 36 silver, and 25 bronze.

The Tokyo games, the first ever to be held during a pandemic, were particularly interesting for Jamaica, given that they were the first of the post-Usain Bolt era. But the island’s athletes made their presence felt, led by Elaine Thompson-Herah’s successful defence of her sprint double title, and the gold medal performance of the women’s 4x100m relay team and 110m hurdler Hansle Parchment.

The nine-medal haul in Tokyo 2020 is tied fourth best of all time with the nine won in 2000 in Sydney, Australia. However, the 12 medals won in London in 2012 was the best haul ever, as the island mined 11 each in Beijing, China in 2008 and in Rio in 2016.

Initially Jamaica had won 12 medals in Beijing, but the men’s 4x100m relay team were stripped of their medal after Nesta Carter was later charged with a doping violation.

The last time Jamaica failed to get a gold medal at the world’s most important sporting extravaganza was in 2000 in Sydney.

Historically, the Bolt era — Beijing 2008 to Rio 2016 — was the best ever period for Jamaica with 34 of the total 87 medals, including 15 of the 26 gold medals with a heavy concentration on the sprints.

Bolt alone accounts for gold medals with his treble double, while Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and Veronica Campbell Brown combine for seven more sprint gold medals.

The Bolt era saw three clean sweep of sprint medals — the women’s 100m in Beijing where Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won her first gold and teammates Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart had a historic tie for the silver; the men’s 200m in London which saw Bolt take gold, while Yohan Blake and Warren Weir took silver and bronze, respectively; and again this year when Thompson-Herah won the women’s 100m with Fraser-Pryce second and the indefatigable Shericka Jackson third in her first year of running the 100m competitively.

Jackson also won a gold in the women’s 4x100m relay and a bronze in the 4x400m relays.

Former Jamaica Observer writer and track and field analyst Earl Bailey thinks Jamaica could do better in other areas including the horizontal jumps in which the island won a solitary medal — bronze from Chelsea Hammond — in 2008.

“We are destined to be dipping in and out of the medals in this area. As long as we are not inserting many genuine sprinters in the horizontal jumps we are going to get fleeting results. We have sprinters to spare,” he told the Observer, adding that most of the island’s top schools will carry 12 good sprinters and very few jumpers to Boys’ and Girls’ Champs, the annual track and field competition staged by the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association regarded as a nursery of sorts for the island’s athletics programme.

Jamaica had two talented jumpers at the Tokyo Olympics — World Champion long jumper Tajay Gayle, who was injured in the prelims, showed up for the final but failed to get into the medals; and World Championships women’s triple jump silver medallist Shanieka Ricketts, who placed fourth.

“Maybe not enough jumps coaches and, importantly, enough proper pits where the kids feel safe to express themselves in training,” Bailey opined. “Cuba puts their top talent in the pits and we see the results year after year. If we just put 50 per cent in the pits we could compete with the world. That area needs attention.”

World Championship silver medallist and Commonwealth Games record holder Fedrick Dacres, slowed by injuries, failed to win Jamaica’s first Olympic throws medal. Bailey, though, believes it is just a matter of time before the island starts reaping Olympic medals in this discipline.

“We will be seeing more throwers coming out of the system in the future. This area is still relatively young,” he said.

“Throwing is evolving as well. We are seeing more slimmer athletes instead of big persons in throwing. This direction suits Jamaica as we are short on big athletes in our schools. The bigger countries have a major advantage here. If Trinidad and Tobago and India can win in this area, we can,” Bailey argued.

Franz Forde, coach of Immaculate Conception and who has coached some good throwers, said he was not surprised by Dacres’s performance. “I knew Dacres would have a difficulty, especially arriving 24 hours before the competition. I’m not surprised nor disappointed, to be honest.”

Next to the sprints, hurdles has provided a tidy haul of medals since 2004 when Danny MacFarlane took silver in the 400m hurdles; Melaine Walker set an Olympic record in Beijing four years later; and Parchment won the bronze in London before adding a gold this year while Ronald Levy and Megan Tapper also added sprint hurdles bronze medals.

This is not a surprise, said Bailey. “We have great sprinting talent hurdling from an early age so we are going to continue to do well in the sprint. The intermediate hurdles is tougher as we are short in the 400m. They also start the event relatively late at Class Two.”

Athens 2004 — 2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronzeBeijing- 2008 — 5 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronzeLondon 2012 — 5 gold 5 silver 3 bronzeRio 2016 — 6 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronzeTokyo 2020 — 4 gold 1 silver, 4 bronze

Men’s 400mh: Danny McFarlane – silver

Women’s 100: Veronica Campbell – bronze

Women’s 200m: Veronica Campbell – gold

Women’s 4x100m: Jamaica – gold

Women’s 4x400m: Jamaica – bronze

Men’s 100m: Usain Bolt – gold

Men’s 200m: Usain Bolt – gold

Women’s 100m: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce – gold; Sherone

Simpson/Kerron Stewart – silver

Women 200m: Veronica Campbell – gold, Kerron Stewart – bronze

Women’s 400m: Shericka Williams – silver

Women’s 400mh: Melaine Walker – gold

Women’s 4x400m: Jamaica – silver

Women’s long jump: Chelsea Hammond – bronze

Men’s 100m: Usain Bolt- gold, Yohan Blake – silver

Men’s 200m: Usain Bolt – gold, Yohan Blake – silver, Warren

Weir – bronze

Men’s 110mh: Hansle Parchment – bronze

Men’s 4x100m: Jamaica – gold

Women’s 100m: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce – gold, Veronica

Campbell Brown – bronze

Women’s 200m: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce – silver

Women’s 4x100m: Jamaica – Silver

Women’s 4x400m: Jamaica – Silver

Men’s 100m: Usain Bolt – gold

Men’s 200m: Usain Bolt – gold

Men’s 110mh: Omar McLeod – gold

Men’s 4x100m: Jamaica – gold

Men’s 4x400m: Jamaica – silver

Women’s 100m: Elaine Thompson – gold, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce – bronze

Women’s 200m: Elaine Thompson – gold,

Women’s 400m: Shericka Jackson – bronze

Women’s 4x100m: Jamaica – silver

Women’s 4x400m: Jamaica – Silver

Men’s 110mh: Hansle Parchment – gold, Ronald Levy – bronze

Women’s 100m: Elaine Thompson-Herah – gold, Shelly-Ann

Fraser-Pryce – silver, Shericka Jackson – bronze

Women’s 4x100m: Jamaica – gold

Women’s 200m: Elaine Thompson-Herah – gold

Women’s 100mh: Megan Tapper – bronze

Women’s 4x100m: Jamaica – gold

Women’s 4x400m: Jamaica – bronze