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file photos - Merlene Ottey
Brandon Simpson
WHILE I GENERALLy respect other people's opinions, I feel I must take issue with those persons making a comparison between Brandon Simpson's decision to switch his track and field allegiance to the United States and Merlene Ottey's decision to acquire Slovenian citizenship.
Although both situations involve trading in our black, green and gold for another nation's flag, it should be noted that while Merlene went to Slovenia after giving her best years to Jamaica's track and field, Brandon is going off to the United States at his best with what appears to be many productive years ahead of him.
Some justification
While there might be some amount of justification in describing Brandon's situation as jumping ship, since he is leaving at a time when the nation would gladly continue to embrace him, the same can't be said for Merlene because she was literally forced out of Jamaica's track and field by those who claimed she was standing in the way of younger athletes.
It is against that background that I totally and categorically reject the suggestion that Merlene's move to Slovenia is tantamount to jumping ship or any other such weird conclusion. In fact, I think it is downright rude, unforgivably insensitive and basically disrespectful to be playing with the image of such a great patriot in that manner.
While Brandon's contribution to Jamaica's track and field amounts to just about three or four years of quality service.
Merlene's contribution encompasses over 20-years, dating back to the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. In fact, if she was requested to, she would still be out there running for Jamaica.
Instead of trying to slight Merlene, who gave her all for Jamaica, by equating her to Brandon, who has made it clear that he thinks his best is yet to come, I believe we should be saluting the durability that allows her, at just a few years short of fifty, to out-sprint international athletes twenty odd years her junior. Rather than trivialising this great woman in the eyes of today's youngsters, who might be unaware of her great accomplishments, I think those advancing this 'jump ship argument' should instead be seeking to spread a positive message about one who is destined to go down in the annals as arguably our greatest female athlete.
We need to remember that in the era when the great German and American drug-cheats were wielding their all-conquering power and forcing other athletes to step away from the track out of frustration that they might never win a medal, Merlene never backed away. Despite being labelled the 'bronze queen', she never backed away from the sprinting laboratories.
Merlene Ottey statue
It is my hope that the government will speed up its effort to have the Merlene Ottey statue, which is earmarked to be mounted outside the National Stadium, completed and erected as early as possible. Our youngsters must grow up to see this great woman as the true sporting ambassador she is and not as someone, who ran a few races for Slovenia in the twilight of her career.
One just needs to speak to the athletes who represented Jamaica in the 2004 Olympics Games to understand that while she wore Slovenian colours, her heart was in the Jamaican camp. I felt good to hear the athletes describing how she spent all her spare time sharing her experience and offering encouragement, advice and guidance to them.
While Brandon's decision to switch allegiance to the United States could probably raise doubts about his patriotism since he is yet to offer up a plausible explanation, based on what Merlene has done for this nation, in my book she is the ultimate patriot.
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