The final line on T&T's performance at the 2016 Olympic Games is yet to be written; that awaits the 4X400m relay and the javelin throw by our 2012 medalist, Keshorn Walcott.
Nevertheless, there is a hunger being displayed for medals not won and the anxiety that the country can go empty-handed and this after an encouraging medal performance at the 2012 Games of London.
That is understandable. Expectations have been encouraged by the campaign launched by the President of the T&T Olympic Committee, Brian Lewis, for a total of 10 golds by the 2024 Games.
T&T should learn from Jamaica. We should, however, remember that Keshorn Walcott demonstrated in the semi-final that he is already first in the line for the gold and that the country has quite a good record in the half-mile relay event.
Moreover, the anxiety levels for medals cannot be so high that we ignore stellar performances which may not have brought medals but showed that there are those who performed.
Cleopatra Borel at 37 reaching the finals of the shot put event is some achievement. Placing sixth in the 100m and 200m sprint for Michelle-Lee Ahye was not only a first-time for a T&T female sprinter, but significant for the fact that the results place her amongst the first six female sprinters in the world.
The sterling efforts of these two competitors and the dignified manner in which they carried themselves through their events must also be celebrated.
Similarly, Alisha Chow, even at an advance age for Olympics, performed with a measure of spunk to reach the finals of the rowing event; even if she could not have won a medal.
What the results so far show that it is not easy to win medals at the Olympic Games. For decades mighty nations such as Russia and China, and the western giants, the United States and Britain, have devoted enormous resources and invest much national pride in performing and winning at the Olympics.
That this tiny country amongst world nations has been winning medals at the Games since 1948 and amongst them gold and silver (not minimising the bronze achievements) is of great significance and should swell national pride.
However, notwithstanding the noteworthy performances so far at the Rio Games, it does not mean that the country should not have aspirations for medals; it cannot be only competing for the pride of knowing that athletes have performed at the highest level.
What the country must be most disappointed by is that there was not sufficient of the "heart and soul" and total commitment of Ahye and Borel performances at this Games displayed amongst other athletes, especially those who had performed with distinction at previous meets.
One question arises here is whether or not a number of these athletes had devoted sufficient time and energy to training and performing before the Games.
But just as T&T must be disappointed, our Caribbean neighbours, Jamaica once again showed themselves to be amongst the greatest athletic nations, "pound for pound"–size of population, resources and facilities–in the world. T&T sends them congratulations.
Now to the point; what has Jamaica been doing that T&T has not sought to emulate?
While the athletes here and the several sporting associations have been always howling for money, the Jamaican associations, undoubtedly without the quantity of financial resources held by and spent by the government here on athletes, have organised, developed training programmes and a culture of excellence which we have not approached.
Success here has come almost exclusively on the basis of athletes getting scholarships to American universities. That surely is not sufficient.
