AS far as Jamaica’s sporting fans are concerned, even the most priceless pieces in France’s iconic Louvre Museum hold little in value when compared to the island’s athletic masterpieces.

The Olympic Games is already in motion, but with the royal-hued track inside Paris’s Stade de France now taking focus, the country’s track and field athletes will strut their stuff under the shadow of the majestic Eiffel Tower, ready to deliver more Olympic glory in the sprint towards triple figures.

One Jamaican has already defended the colours in Paris, Judo competitor Ashley McKenzie, suffering elimination in the qualifying round of the Men’s 60kg event.

Purpose and glory already secured, diving trailblazer Yona Knight-Wisdom is preparing for his swansong on August 6, while swimmer Josh Kirlew makes his debut in the 100m butterfly today, one day before Sabrina Lyn’s 50m freestyle splash, in what is a welcomed continuation of the country’s participation in aquatics disciplines at this level.

However, the medal charge, as always, will be led by the country’s track and field stars, with just one of the island’s 87 medals being placed around the neck of a non-track and field athlete — David Weller, the cyclist, who won bronze at the 1980 Games in Moscow, while competing in the 1000m Time Trial.

For president of the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) Christopher Samuda, the start of athletics represents a critical point of Jamaica’s campaign in France, one that he is confident will bring success and purpose.

“As we begin our athletics campaign in the French capital, it remains ‘Power in Paris’, which is the theme of the Jamaica Olympic Association for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games,” Samuda told the Jamaica Observer.

“History will be made for some, and for others it will be an affirmation of what history has written and the present acknowledges. What is on the agenda is gold, and that must be the focus that drives citizens of the sprint capital. It will be ‘D’ day, and I have every hope that goals will be met and surpassed,” added Samuda.

The Paris Olympics have been fraught with issues ranging from pollution of the River Seine and complaints of extreme heat inside the Athletes’ Village to a widely criticised opening ceremony and security concerns.

In truth, the Jamaicans have already had to deal with their fair share of challenges as well.

Dreams of continued dominance in the women’s 100m took a hit with news that 200m World Champion and the fastest Jamaican this year, Shericka Jackson, will not compete in the event due to injury concerns, with the experienced Shashalee Forbes, a semi-finalists in Budapest last year, taking her spot.

Forbes will be joined by the prodigious Tia Clayton, who finished second at the National Championships in a 10.86 personal best, and the timeless Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, whose career could be described as this team’s chef d’oeuvre, a masterful combination of power, perseverance, performance, and prestige, which has redefined the sport.

Having been there, and having won it all, once at the line the “Pocket Rocket” is always a contender and is sure to play a major role in this drama-filled showdown.

The 2008 and 2012 champion Fraser-Pryce along with 2016 and 2020 gold medal winner Elaine Thompson Herah, have led a Jamaican stranglehold on the women’s 100m event at the Olympic Games, in a 16-year reign that has seldom faced a greater threat than the one presented in Paris by American poster girl Sha’Carri Richardson.

However, Clayton, who was only four days old when Belarus’s Yuliya Nesterenko — the last non-Jamaican to win the event — took top spot on the podium at the 2004 Games in Athens, is primed to significantly lower her personal best here, with insiders tipping the 19-year-old for a gold medal coronation in Paris, not dissimilar to Fraser-Pryce’s surprise triumph in Beijing.

Richardson’s training partners Twanisha Terry and Melissa Jefferson have both gone fast this season but, as far as the largest threats to Jamaica’s streak is concerned, it’s St Lucia’s Julien Alfred, the World Indoor champion, who seems most likely to play spoiler along with the flamboyant American.

Other medal hopefuls in action on today’s opening day of track and field competition include multiple World Championships silver medallist Shanieka Ricketts, who will be pushing for her first piece of Olympics jewellery.

Below her best this year, Ricketts, who will be joined in the qualifying round by compatriots Kimberly Williams and Ackelia Smith, carries the country’s best hope for a long overdue maiden medal in the triple jump.

Only two women have jumped higher than Lamara Distin’s 2.00m mark this season and the Commonwealth champion and World Championships finalist is hoping to create history in the event by becoming the first Jamaican medal winner in this discipline, with the Mixed 4x400m relay team also presenting a strong case for a Paris 2024 medal.

Natoya Goule and Adele Tracey in the women’s 800m, Rajindra Campbell in the men’s Shot Put, and Samantha Hall in the women’s Discus are Jamaica’s other competitors on Friday, but the push to 100 will continue over the coming days.

Coming into the 2024 Games, only 36 countries had won 100 or more medals at the Olympic Games.

In addition to the female sprinters, if Jamaica is to join that company, they will be looking particularly to the likes of 100m speedsters Kishane Thompson and Oblique Seville; sprint hurdlers Hansle Parchment, Rasheed Broadbell and Ackera Nugent; 400m hurdles standout Rushell Clayton; horizontal jumpers Jaydon Hibbert, Wayne Pinnock, Tajay Gayle, and Carey McLeod; breakout quarter-miler Nickisha Pryce; and the relay teams to deliver podium success.

As the wait to exhale comes close to an end, the charge towards 100 hits high gear and, as Samuda puts it, the country is on the cusp of a magical sporting milestone.

“I have every confidence that our men and women will be the greatest versions of themselves and earn the admiration and pride of our country. The JOA salutes our athletic ambassadors who carry with them the credentials of an iconic history and the glory of a future,” Samuda shared.

The Olympic Games will come to an end on August 11.