My Cayman people, let’s talk about the man who single-handedly put our country among eternal stars, let’s talk about our golden boy who is now the fastest swimmer of all time, let’s talk about the one and only Jordan Crooks.
As a journalist and a Caymanian let me start by saying I am completely biased when it comes to our beloved Jordan Crooks, who has set the bar so high that I fear we may never see history like this again, though I hope that isn’t the case.
If we are looking at it from a Caribbean perspective, only two swimmers have set world records before Crooks – George Bovell of Trinidad and Tobago in the 200IM and Alia Atkinson of Jamaica, in the 100m breaststroke.
Crooks swam 19.90 seconds in the 50m free to become the first human being to swim that event sub 20 seconds. He followed that by winning and defending his title, which he won two years prior in Melbourne, Australia.
However, I am not sold that our nation has fully grasped the magnitude of what Crooks accomplished at the 2024 World Championship in Budapest, therefore I’ll endeavour to make even a non sports fan understand.
It’s fair to say that even a common Joe knows who Michael Phelps is, well for context let’s be clear that Phelps excelled in the butterfly, but for perspective, I will use his 50m free time because of his prominence.
Phelps’ short course 50m free stands at 22.99, meaning Crooks would have easily left him in bubbles. The common Joe also knows who Usain Bolt is – the fastest man to ever live in the sport of track and field. Well, Crooks is now the fastest man to ever live in swimming, albeit over the short course format.
If you told Caymanians this kind of international success would happen, most would probably laugh and tell you it is a pipedream.
But Crooks has put those arguments to bed. He is not just the greatest Caymanian athlete, but he is the greatest short course sprinter on the planet – a monumental accomplishment for these little islands.
Personally, what Crooks has accomplished as a person of colour in a sport that remains underrepresented by that demographic, both locally and internationally, makes his success more meaningful.
After Crooks won gold in 2022, I did an opinion piece then, stressing that the Cayman community as a whole should feel a great sense of pride for what we are witnessing – a once in a generation talent.
When the sporting Gods were sprinkling their stardust over the planet, so much of it landed in bigger countries.
Miraculously some of that cosmic glow landed right here in Grand Cayman. And thanks to his parents, coaches and his school – the University of Tennessee – those raw materials have been forged into one of the brightest stars in the sporting firmament. Long may he shine.
– Seaford Russell Jr, [email protected]
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