Immediately, on what would have been her 103rd birthday, we pause to recollect and have fun trailblazing athlete and doctor Dr. Cynthia Annabelle Thompson. Her journey, which started on the cinder tracks of Kingston within the Forties, culminated in yet one more Jamaican sporting first at a time when the now dash capital had not but made its mark on the worldwide athletics stage.
West Indian Thunderbolt
Born Cynthia Annabelle Thompson on November 29, 1922, in Kingston she attended St. Hugh’s High School for Women in Kingston, the place her pure velocity rapidly set her aside. All the time a winner, she later shared that she “by no means got here second in a race.” She ran for the sheer pleasure of it and didn’t take athletics too severely in these early years. On the time, the game was casual and largely improvised, with no spikes, specialised coaching, or structured teaching. But Thompson thrived, counting on uncooked expertise and intuition.
In 1946 she ready for her first worldwide look on the fifth Central American and Caribbean Video games (CAC) in Barranquilla, Colombia, by driving her bicycle from her residence on Hagley Park Street to Caxton Park, now the Bell Chung Stadium, in Rae City. There she started receiving formal teaching and discovered the technical foundations of sprinting, together with beginning methods, arm motion and knee carry.
Competing towards the most effective within the area, Thompson captured gold within the 100 metres in 12.1 seconds and silver within the 50 metres. In 1947, she repeated her success towards robust American opposition by profitable the 100 yards on the British Guiana Video games, equalling the world document with a time of 10.8 seconds. She went on to rank fourth on the earth within the 100 metres and sixth within the 200 metres. At a time when the Caribbean was solely starting to claim itself in athletics, her performances signalled the emergence of Jamaica as a sprinting power.
The 1948 London Video games
Two years later, Thompson travelled to London as one in all 4 Jamaican girls chosen for the 1948 Olympic Video games, the primary Olympics through which Jamaica fielded feminine athletes. She competed within the 100 metres and 200 metres and, by her personal admission, didn’t totally grasp the importance of the second.
The 1948 Video games, referred to as the “Austerity Video games,” had been held simply three years after the tip of the Second World Struggle, and the scars of wartime bombing had been nonetheless evident throughout town. The journey itself was troublesome. Travelling by ship, she battled extreme seasickness, misplaced weight, and arrived in London removed from her peak situation. Regardless of the troublesome circumstances and restricted time to recuperate, she pressed on, advancing by means of the rounds of the 100 metres and reaching the semi-finals of the 200 metres. Her efficiency made her the primary Jamaican, male or feminine to achieve an Olympic 100 metres ultimate.
Thompson completed sixth within the ultimate, a unprecedented accomplishment for an athlete with restricted sources and no worldwide expertise. Her private bests from this period, 12.0 seconds within the 100 metres and 25.1 seconds within the 200 metres, stood as aggressive marks for many years.
TSU Cinderbelle
After the Olympics, Thompson moved from Jamaica to Nashville to hitch the Tennessee State University athletics programme, changing into a part of the early group of athletes who laid the groundwork for what later grew to become the famed Tigerbelles. Whereas at TSU, she continued to excel. In 1954, she was a part of the Tennessee State “Cinderbelles” quartet that shattered a 22-year-old 440-yard relay document on the Alabama State Relays, clocking 49 seconds flat with teammates Margaret Davis, Revoyda Fuller and Mae Faggs.
She additionally continued to compete for Jamaica, setting information within the 100 metres on the sixth Central American and Caribbean Video games. She added silver within the 50 metres and produced extra medal-winning relay performances throughout this era.
Transition to Drugs
After retiring from athletics, Thompson pursued paediatrics on the Meharry Medical Faculty in Nashville earlier than returning residence to qualify as a physician. Homesick, she moved again to Jamaica in 1966, becoming a member of the medical crew on the Youngsters’s Hospital, now the Bustamante Hospital for Youngsters, earlier than establishing a non-public apply.
For greater than three a long time, Dr. Thompson cared for generations of Jamaican kids, demonstrating the identical self-discipline and dedication that outlined her sprinting profession. She retired from medication in 2000, broadly revered for her compassion, professionalism and lengthy service to the neighborhood.
Honours and Recognition
In 2004, Dr. Thompson was inducted into the Jamaica Beginner Athletics Affiliation Corridor of Fame for her distinctive contribution to Jamaican sport and her groundbreaking achievement on the 1948 Olympics. In 2017, Dr. Thompson and Olympian Rupert Hoilett had been honoured as trailblazers by the Olympians Affiliation of Jamaica (OAJ), now the Nationwide Affiliation of Jamaican Olympians (NAJO). She was additionally inducted into the Corridor of Fame at her alma mater, Tennessee State College, the place she is remembered and honoured for her expertise.
Passing and Legacy
Dr. Thompson handed away on 8 March 2019 after a interval of unwell well being. She was 96 on the time of her passing and was recognised as Jamaica’s oldest Olympian, a reminder of how early her achievements got here within the island’s sporting journey.
Her passing sparked nationwide tributes. The Honourable Olivia Grange, Minister of Tradition, Gender, Leisure and Sport, described her as “exceptional in each sense” and “a heroine of Jamaican sport and medication.”
Immediately Dr. Thompson is remembered as one of many extraordinary Jamaican girls who helped form the nation’s sprinting story. Her contributions to sport, medication and neighborhood stay an everlasting inspiration and a strong reminder of the ladies who paved the way in which lengthy earlier than world fame, sponsorships {and professional} teaching grew to become the norm.
