THE EMOTIONAL highpoint of the Athens Games came for many Jamaicans last Wednesday. It was triggered by the tears of golden girl Veronica Campbell as she received her 200-metre gold medal at the victory rostrum in the Olympic stadium.
The tears rolled down her cheeks as the Jamaican National Anthem marked the moment, the anthem being played for the first time in the 28th Olympiad which ends its spectacular staging today.
It is a safe bet that other tears flowed across the island in poignant affirmation of patriotic feeling. Many onlookers admitted as much. Some recalled a similar outpouring on Sunday, November 16, 1997 when the Reggae Boyz drew 0-0 with Mexico in the National Stadium to seal the nation's qualification for the football World Cup of 1998 in France.
Yet, Wednesday's moment, also from the field of sport, was sparked by individual brilliance, extending a rich tradition of Olympian performance by so many - Wint, McKenley, Rhoden, Laing, Quarrie, Ottey, Hemmings, among others over several decades.
In the context of a 42-year-old nation with so many difficult problems to manage, we think it is important to nurture hope and a sense of national spirit especially among the young. Affirmation of that sense of national worth is readily confirmed in competition with the world in such an event as the Olympic Games with its high ideals of striving for great heights of achievement in sport.
The intrinsic human quality of belonging to a nation is as old as the 'civis Romanus sum' of ancient Rome identifying a citizenship bespeaking pride and power. It is a quality that survives wars and revolutions and the geo-political changes that have seen empires fade and colonies turn to nation-states.
Our athletes in a wide variety of sports can evoke this vital spirit by the entertainment they provide, which these days in so many instances has attained the status of big business. Note, for example, the billions spent to stage the games in Greece; and, closer home, the anticipation of economic windfall from the cricket World Cup in this region in 2007.
So even as Veronica sparks the patriotism of her fellow citizens we hail yet another chapter of Olympian pride. It is a useful platform on which to build the qualities of character and hard work for high achievement in so many other sectors of national life.
