Jamaica’s participation in the recently concluded 33rd Olympic Games in Paris will be forever remembered for a majestic, mammoth 70.00m discus throw from Roje Stona at Stade de France late in the evening of Wednesday, August 7, when he became the first non-European to win the event in decades.

Stona’s victory was one of four first-time accomplishments by Jamaica at the Olympics as, for the first time, there were three men in the discus throw final, fellow thrower Rajindra Campbell won a bronze in the men’s shot put, and Shanieka Ricketts took a first-ever silver in the women’s triple jump.

In the track and field-only medals tables, Jamaica placed eighth overall with one gold, three silver and two bronze medals, as the United States topped the tables with 34 medals including 14 bronze, followed by Kenya with 11 overall with four gold medals and Canada in third place with a total of five medals including three gold.

There were several other rare occurrences, at least as it relates to recent editions of the Olympics, that left most fans dissatisfied, including not having a finalist in the women’s 200m, not medalling in the women’s 100m, and not taking back a single medal in any of the four relays in which the country participated.

After getting used to double-digit medals from most major global track and field championships since 2008, six medals from 23 finalists in 14 finals were not up to the expectations of some fans, especially from what was said to be “one of the strongest teams” ever to represent Jamaica at the biggest sporting event on the planet.

Withdrawals from superstars Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson, because of injuries, had ripple effects through the entire team and affected the women’s 4x100m relay team that failed to win a medal for the first time in years.

Jamaica were represented in four disciplines, primarily track and field that had by far the most representatives, while Sabrina Lyn and Josh Kirlew competed in swimming and Yona Knight-Wisdom featured in his third and final Olympic diving competition. English-born Ashley McKenzie also competed in men’s judo.

Stona was one of the big surprises of the Games, not just for Jamaica — who had little or no expectations from the throws — but for the track and field competition.

After he along with Ralford Mullings and Traves Smikle qualified for the final 12, he advanced to the final eight and minutes after world record holder Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania broke his father’s 20-year-old Olympic Games record with 69.97m, the Jamaican launched his life-changing throw.

Kishane Thompson, the new find in men’s sprinting and the athlete on whose shoulders Jamaica’s resurgence will ultimately rest, battled for a brilliant silver medal, clocking the same time 9.79 seconds as American Noah Lyles, who won by the slimmest of margins — 5,000th of a second; the difference not even as thick as the vests they wore.

Oblique Seville, in his third-straight major final after fourth-place finishes in the World Athletics Championships in Eugene in 2022 and Budapest in 2023, was eighth in 9.91 seconds in what was the fastest-ever men’s 100m race on record.

Wayne Pinnock is building up a reputation for being ready for big occasions and despite battling injuries up to as late as June, he came up big with a silver medal in the men’s long jump with 8.36m while Carey McLeod finished in 12th position.

Shanieka Ricketts’s season-best 14.87m in driving rain was only bested by Dominica’s Thea LaFond, who won her country’s first-ever Olympic medal with a national record 15.02m on the second day of competition at Stade de France.

Ackelia Smith, in her first Olympic Game, was seventh in the triple jump and eighth in the women’s long jump later in the schedule and was Jamaica’s only multiple finalist at the Games.

Rasheed Broadbell buried the ghosts of Budapest where he went with high expectations but failed to complete the first round, winning a bronze medal in yet another very close 110m hurdles competition.

Three Jamaican men lined up in the final, Orlando Bennett was seventh and Hansle Parchment, who won a close race three years earlier in Tokyo, was eighth as he closed the chapter on his Olympic journey.

Rajindra Campbell knew he had some making up to do after he fouled out in the final in Budapest last year, then had three fouls at the World Indoors in March and responded well with his own ‘golden’ moment, a bronze in an event where all three medals were supposed to be shared among the Americans.

Pundits, including world record holder Jonathan Edwards, expect Jaydon Hibbert to dominate the men’s triple jump for years to come after his explosive start to the event, but things have not gone the way the script writers might have planned. After last year’s mishap when he was injured in the very first round of the final, after he had qualified with the longest jump of the competition, his young body failed again as he missed a medal by .04 of a metre, fouling his fourth and fifth jumps, and was forced to pass on his sixth attempt.

Tia Clayton, who toiled long and hard in her twin sister Tina’s shadow, was seventh in the women’s 100m final, not bad for a 19-year-old in her first Olympics and running the 100m for the first time since high school, rather than anchoring relay teams to Under-20 world records.

Clayton, who opened eyes at the JAAA National Championships, running 10.86 seconds on her way to taking second place behind Jackson, ran 10.89 seconds in the semi-final in Paris, third-best in the entire Olympics, only behind St Lucia’s Julien Alfred, who won a historic gold, and American Sha’Carri Richardson, the latter being the world leader.

Rushell Clayton was tipped to take a medal, most likely a bronze, but was fifth in the women’s 400m hurdles, just ahead of Shiann Salmon in one of the most anticipated events on the schedule that saw American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone shatter the world record, again, running 50.37 seconds.

In the Mixed 4x400m relay, an event that has not been kind to Jamaicans, the team of Reheem Hayles, Junelle Bromfield, Zandrion Barnes and Stephenie-Ann McPherson were fifth in the final after running a national record 3:11.06 seconds in the semi-finals.

Romaine Beckford was the highest finishing Jamaican man in the high jump in decades after he placed a commendable 10th, clearing 2.22m.

The barriers were unkind to World Championships finalists Ackera Nugent in the 100m hurdles and Roshawn Clarke in the men’s 400m hurdles both failing to complete their events in the final, while a dropped baton on the second leg saw the women’s 4x400m team also fail to complete their task.