Two-time World Championship triple jump silver medalist Shanieka Ricketts and swimmer Josh Kirlew will be a part of a distinguished record of Jamaican Olympians as they wave the nationwide flag on the Olympic Video games opening ceremony in Paris on July 26.
The announcement was made on Friday throughout a media briefing on the Jamaica Olympic Affiliation (JOA) headquarters.
Ricketts can be competing in her third Olympic Games, whereas swimmer Josh Kirlew, the boys’s flagbearer for the opening ceremony, can be making his Olympic debut.
JOA Chief Govt Officer Ryan Foster emphasised that Ricketts not solely embodies the values required by the Olympic motion but additionally acquired excessive reward from members of the Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) throughout President Thomas Bach’s go to to Jamaica in March final 12 months.
A number of Olympic and World Championships consultant
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“She epitomises what a real Olympian is. And I feel together with her accolades on the sector, whether or not at a World Championships or the Olympic Video games, she additionally represents what Olympic values are when it comes to friendship, equity and humility,” Foster stated. “Her interplay when President Bach got here final 12 months, a number of the suggestions from the IOC personnel when it comes to how she carried herself, symbolize the Olympic values to which we would like a flagbearer to showcase.”
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, a a number of Olympic and World Championships consultant, was the ladies’s flagbearer in the course of the Tokyo Video games in 2021. Foster famous that Ricketts, just like Fraser-Pryce, embodies the qualities of a real Olympian.
Shanieka Ricketts faces a robust area within the girls’s triple soar as she seeks to earn Jamaica’s first Olympic medal within the occasion. She completed fourth on the Tokyo Video games in 2021 and fourth on the World Championships in Budapest final 12 months.
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Along with highlighting Ricketts’ achievements, the announcement additionally brings consideration to the accomplishments of Jamaican aquatics. Kirlew’s position as flagbearer acknowledges the progress of Jamaican swimming, which has seen illustration on the Olympic Video games in numerous disciplines since 1996. Foster in contrast Kirlew’s alternative to that of boxer Ricardo Brown, who carried the flag in Tokyo throughout his Olympic debut.
A possibility to symbolize and to hold the flag
“We imagine that small member associations must also be given a chance to symbolize and to hold the flag. And I feel Mr Kirlew, this being his first Olympic Video games like Ricardo Brown in 2021, provides us the proper alternative to showcase that Jamaica in aquatics has completed very nicely,” Foster stated. “Exterior of Alia, that is the seventh or eighth straight Olympic Video games that the aquatics affiliation, whether or not through diving or by swimming, has certified representatives for the Video games.”
Kirlew, 24, born in England, certified for the boys’s 100m butterfly occasion by way of universality, a system designed to extend the variety of taking part nations. Sabrina Lyn will even compete within the girls’s 50m freestyle by way of universality locations, which can be found within the qualification methods of choose sports activities for nations with historically small delegations.
With the Paris Olympics approaching, the number of Ricketts and Kirlew as flagbearers not solely honors their particular person accomplishments but additionally underscores Jamaica’s numerous and dynamic illustration on the world stage.
