Tuesday, August 14, 2012

T&T's Rodney Wilkes won first Olympic medal in 1948

Rodney Wilkes won a silver medal at the 1948 Olympics in London
Trinidad & Tobago won its first Olympic medal - a silver - when the country was still a British colony. It happened 64 years ago at the 1984 Olympic Games in London.

The man who achieved the feat was Rodney Wilkes who was 23 at the time. Wilkes lifted a combined 700 pounds and won a silver medal at the games. Now at 87 he offered his congratulations Monday to Keshorn Walcott who brought home the country's second Gold medal with his javelin throw on Saturday at the London Games.

Wilkes told the Express newspaper he developed his skills from lifting bundles of grass to feed the family's donkeys.

"I would lift from the ground to my knee, from the knee to my head," the Olympian told the Express. Two years before his Olympic victory he won a gold medal at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Colombia.


McDonald Bailey also represented the country in the 1948 Olympics, competing in the men's 100 metres. He did not win a medal but was successful in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, where he won the bronze medal. He was awarded Trinidad and Tobago's Chaconia Gold medal in 1977.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

CORRECTION HERE......THE OLYMPICS WAS 1 9 4 8 ,NOT 1984!!!

WHY OHWHY DOESNt TT ACKNOWLEDGE THIE STELLAR F A C T....OUR F I R S T OLYMPIAN
......OUR F I R S T OLYMPIC MEDAL

1 9 4 8 /LONDON OLYMPCS

Anonymous said...

MCDONALD BAILEY WAS N O T OUR FIRST OLYMPIC MRDAL

RODNEY WILKES WAS OUR FIRST OLYMPIAN...1948.....REPRESENTONG TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO....NOT LONDONAS BAILEY DID 4YEARS AFTER RODNEYs OLYMPIC SILVER FOR TT

Anonymous said...

PLEASE CAN ALL THE SPORTING PUNDITS . WRITERS, RESEARCHERS PUBLISH ACURATE FACT....RODNEY WILKES IS WAS TRINIDAD/TOBAGOs FIRST OLYMPIC MEDAL////1948

MCDONALD BAILEY RAN FOR ENGLAND NPT TRINIDAD TOBAGOAND MACDONAALD DID SO IN 1952....RODNEYREPRESENTED TT IN 1948

Anonymous said...

TYPO....ENGLAND.N O T TRINIDAD TOOBAGO

Jai & Sero

Jai & Sero

Our family at home in Toronto 2008

Our family at home in Toronto 2008
Amit, Heather, Fuzz, Aj, Jiv, Shiva, Rampa, Sero, Jai