Highlights:
Trinidad and Tobago won one medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, courtesy of London 2012 javelin gold medallist Keshorn Walcott. Walcott threw 85.38m to claim the bronze, throwing further than his gold medal-winning efforts four years earlier in London but not enough to allow him to defend his crown.
Trinidad and Tobago sent its first athlete delegation to the Olympic Games in 1948 in London where competitors represented the NOC in athletics, cycling and weightlifting. At those first Games for Trinidad and Tobago, weightlifter Rodney Wilkes won the NOC's first Olympic medal, taking a silver in the 60kg division. Wilkes added a bronze medal to his collection in the same weight category at the 1952 Games in Helsinki.
In 1976 Hasely Crawford won the NOC's first Olympic gold medal on the biggest of stages, the men's 100m sprint in athletics. Crawford also qualified for the 200m final in 1976 but suffered an injury during the race and limped home in a distant last. Crawford would go on to become a four-time Olympian, running in 1980 and 1984 in addition to his first Games in 1972, but would not win another medal.
The next big-name Trinidad and Tobago athlete to come onto the Olympic scene was Ato Boldon. Despite never winning an Olympic gold medal, he had an extended period of sprinting excellence in his four-Games career, with the peak stretching across the 1996 and 2000 Games. He won one silver [100m - Sydney] and three bronze [100m, 200m - Atlanta, 200m - Sydney]. His total of four Olympic medals are more than any other athlete from the NOC.
Richard Thompson reached the final of the 100m in athletics at both the 2008 and 2012 Games, finishing second behind Usain Bolt in 2008. He added two more silver medals to his tally, anchoring the 4x100m squads in both 2008 and 2012. However, the Beijing silver was upgraded to gold when the winning team from Jamaica was stripped of the title for a doping violation. Thompson competed in his third Games at Rio 2016 but failed to make the final of either the 100m or 4x100m events.
Of Trinidad and Tobago's 19 medals, only four have come in a sport other than athletics, with one silver and two bronze medals in weightlifting and one bronze in swimming. Swimmer George Bovell competed at five consecutive Olympic Games between 2000 and 2016, but it was at Athens 2004 in the 200m individual medley that he stood on the podium. His bronze is still the NOC's only swimming medal at an Olympic Games.
Additional Information: Website
https://www.teamtto.org
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/TTOlympic