The Bahamas has yet to capture a medal so far at this year's Olympic Games and many Bahamians are starting to question if and when it is going to happen.
Calls flooded the Darold Miller Live talk show yesterday, hosted on the Guardian Radio, with Bahamians wanting to know if this is the strongest or best team The Bahamas could field at the 30th Olympiads, currently going on in London. During the show, which was based around the topic 'The Bahamas still in the hunt for medals', Miller said "there have been some bright spots that could be brighter but thus far we are still in the hunt for medals".
When asked, by Miller, where is our brightest hope for medals in these remaining days Carlton Smith replied: "I think it is probably in the relays, either the men's 4x400m or the women's 4x100m relay team. I am not sure if everybody is healthy on the women's team. If everybody is healthy and performing well we stand a legitimate chance.
"But Jamaica [has] two world class sprinters who made the final of the 100m and the United States also with two women who made the final of the 100m, they are all legitimate contenders for the gold medal. It will be hard press for The Bahamas women's 4x100m relay team to beat either Jamaica or the United States. It is not impossible, but it is highly unlikely that it is going to happen. So they will have to contend for the bronze medal, in my mind.
"The men's 4x400m relay team stand a legitimate chance of winning either a gold, silver or bronze medal. They have three top quarter-milers and add a fourth quarter-miler to that group."
Smith is a veteran sports broadcaster who revealed that he was hoping by now we (The Bahamas) would have gotten a medal. He drew illustration to the men's 400m final which Chris Brown and Demetrius Pinder lined up in on Monday. For the second consecutive Olympic Games Brown placed fourth just out of the medal. His time was 44.79 seconds. This was Pinder's first Olympic Games and he was seventh overall in 44.98 seconds.
While many congratulated the team on the great job so far, when Miller opened up the lines, one caller believed that not enough time is being placed on the development of our athletes. He further stated that time and money goes hand-and-hand because training is very expensive. There was one who called for a National Lottery, to assist our athletes better and others who agreed with Miller that diet was very important.
One text message to Miller called for Bahamians to stop making excuses for our people and start investing in the arts and sports industries. It went on to say that the talent is here but a talent search support and finance is needed to motivate and empower our young people.
The Bahamas first competed in the Olympics in 1952, at the games in Helsinki. No medals were won. The first medal came four years later, when the games were held in Melbourne, Australia in 1956. A four-member team came back home with a bronze medal. The medal was captured by Sir Durward Knowles and Sloane Farrington, competing in the Star class, sailing.
Knowles and Cooke would return in 1964, in Tokyo to win the country's first gold medal. They sailed once again in the Star class.
It wasn't until 1992 when the first individual track and field medal was won. Triple jumper Frank Rutherford hopped, skipped and jumped his way onto the medal podium when he landed 17.36m. Ever since Rutherford's achievement the medals kept pouring in for The Bahamas.
A silver was won in 1996 in the 4x100m relay. The team of Debbie Ferguson (now McKenzie), Eldece Clarke, Chandra Sturrup, Savatheda Fynes and Pauline Davis (now Thompson) clocked 42.14 seconds. When the games were hosted in 2000 in Sydney, Australia, The Bahamas had moved up the ranking chart with the two medals won. The relay team members were now referred to as the 'Golden Girls' and Davis-Thompson was later awarded the gold medal in the 200m, after originally placing second behind American Marion Jones who was stripped of her medal. The 2000 games was called the best showing for The Bahamas, but then came the 2004 edition held in Athens, Greece.
Tonique Williams-Darling won the first gold medal for The Bahamas, in the 400m and Ferguson-McKenzie brought home the bronze in the 200m. Leevan 'Superman' Sands and the men's 4x400m team added a bronze and silver to the country's list of achievements at the 2008 games.

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