With the Cayman Islands competing in the Olympic Games since the 1970s, Jordan Crooks taking part in an Olympic swimming final at the 2024 Games was an accomplishment a half century in the making.
The Cayman Islands’ first foray into the Olympics was in 1976 in Montreal, Canada, when sailors Carson Ebanks and Gerry Kirkconnell, with Peter Milburn as an alternate, became the first athletes to represent the islands.
Since then, Cayman Islands athletes have competed in the 1976, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2021 Summer Games in the sports of sailing, athletics, cycling, gymnastics and swimming, and in the 2010 and 2014 Winter Games in alpine skiing.
The only time since 1976 that Cayman missed out on the games was in 1980 when, like 65 other countries, it joined a US-led boycott of the Summer Olympics in Russia, in protest over the Russian-Afghan war.
In 1976, as now, people back home in Cayman were keen to let their athletes know they were cheering them from afar. While Cayman residents this week recorded video messages of support for Crooks on their phones and uploaded them to social media or sent them to caymancompass.com, back in 1976, good luck wishes were sent in a different way.
The Caymanian Compass, on its 20 July 1976 front page, reported, “The 17-page good-luck telegram containing over 1,000 names, was accepted by Gerry Kirkconnell on Saturday. He was completely overwhelmed.”
Here is a list of all the Cayman athletes who have taken part in the Summer and Winter Olympic Games*:
1976 Montreal Olympics: Carson Ebanks, Gerry Kirkconnell, Peter Milburn
1984 Los Angeles Olympics: Merilyn Phillips, Alfred Ebanks, Craig Merren, David Dibben, Aldyn Wint, Ernest Moodie, John Bodden, Carson Ebanks
1988 Seoul Olympics: Paul Hurlston, Michelle Bush, Perry Merren, Michele Smith, Richard Pascal, Alfred Ebanks, Nicholas Baker, Craig Merren
1992 Barcelona Olympics: Kareem Streete-Thompson, Stefan Baraud, Michele Smith, Dennis Brooks, Craig Merren, Alfred Ebanks, Don Campbell, John Bodden, Byron Marsh, Mark Clarke
1996 Atlanta Olympics: Cydonie Mothersill, Stefan Baraud, Carson Ebanks, Donald McLean, Michael Joseph, Alun Davies, Mark Clarke, David Grogono
2000 Sydney Olympics: Kareem Streete-Thompson, Cydonie Mothersill, Tomeaka McTaggart
2004 Athens Olympics: Kareem Streete-Thompson, Cydonie Mothersill, Shaune Fraser, Heather Roffey, Andrew MacKay
2008 Beijing Olympics: Ronald Forbes, Cydonie Mothersill, Shaune Fraser, Brett Fraser
2010 Vancouver Winter Olympicsw: Dow Travers
2012 London Olympics: Cydonie Mothersill, Ronald Forbes, Brett Fraser, Shaune Fraser, Kemar Hyman
2014 Sochi Winter Olympics: Dow Travers
2016 Rio Olympics: Kemar Hyman, Ronald Forbes, Florence Allan, Geoffrey Butler, Lara Butler
2021 Tokyo Olympics: Kemar Hyman, Shalysa Wray, Raegan Rutty, Brett Fraser, Jillian Crooks
*Source: Olympian Database
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