2016 olympic - Haiti Observer Blog

Here is the Haitian runner Jeffrey Julmis during the first of the 110m hurdle semi-finals at the Olympic games in Rio. He toke a dive but despite being hampered, he managed to finish in a time of 25.56, nearly 12 seconds behind the second-last place runner. In his first series, Jeffrey Julmis finished in 13.66 seconds and ranked 3rd on 9 runners.

Haitian hurdler Jeffrey Julmis fell down after hitting a hurdle in the 110 meter hurdles semi-finals. His falling drew massive cheers from the crowd at the Estadio Olimpico on August 16. Julmis mistimed the first obstacle on the course and jumped straight into the first hurdle during the first of the 110 meter hurdles semi-finals and tumbled head over feet into the second one while taking the first hurdle with him all the way to the second hurdle. But, in true Olympic spirit, he got up again to finish the race to huge cheers from the crowd. Took a deep breath, composed himself and cleared the final eight hurdles in a time of 25.56 seconds, nearly 13 seconds behind race winner Orlando Ortega of Spain (13.32 seconds) and 12 seconds behind the second-last place getter Ronnie Ash of USA (13.36 seconds). Yordan O'Farrill of Cuba came last in the round with 13.70 seconds time. He was later declared disqualified, but no one's run was more memorable than Julmis in Lane 9 who ended up himself doing a somersault, landing close to the second hurdle.

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The story behind the Olympic medals goes all the way back to the ancient Olympics, when only the winner of an event would receive a crown of laurel leaves as his prize. Leaves of such crown were taken from a sacred grove, near the temple of Zeus, in Olympia. In 1896, the winners were awarded silver medals and a diploma in addition to the crown. In 1904, for the first time in the Olympic history, the tradition of awarding gold, silver and bronze medals began in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States.

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According to the Haitian Olympic Committee, 10 Haitian athletes are representing Haiti in Rio 2016 in Brazil from 5 to 21 August 2016. They are: Darrell Wesh (100 and 200 meters), Jeffrey Jilmus (110 meters hurdles), Mulern Jean (100 meters hurdles), Samyr Lain¨¦ (triple jump); Richardson Hitchins (Boxing); Josu¨¦ Deprez (Judo); Edouard Joseph (Weight Lifting); Asnage Castelly (Wrestling); Aniya Necol Louissaint (Taekwondo). Naomy Grand ¡(r)Pierre is a former Whitefield Academy swimmer; her participation has been accepted in the Aquatic Sports by the International Swimming Federation (FINA). Haiti is what is known as a ¡°universality place¡±; the nation can send one male and one female athlete to the world championships. Since Haiti does not have any swimmer to match the Olympic qualifying speeds, Naomy was approached by Haitian authority if she would like to join its national team for this summer¡¯s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Her representation has been accepted under the rule of Universality. She is a current resident of Atlanta, a Major in Economics and International Studies, a regular participator in swimming, track and soccer in high school. So far, Haiti had sent the maximum number of participants (13) in the 1976 Montreal Olympic-- 10 in Athletics events and 3 in Boxing.

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The threat of the Zika virus is absolutely real in Brazil and it has reached in Rio de Janeiro. There it is flourishing beyond expectation. In last January, the declaration of Rio as a "safe environment" by the International Olympic Committee was a plain speculation based upon a declaration by the Brazil's Ministry of Health that described "Zika as a notifiable disease". The declaration was not supported by any actual data, because then the counting of cases was not started. However, when the data became available, it showed Rio de Janeiro's suspected Zika cases (about 26,000) are one of the highest (fourth, with 157 cases per 100,000) of any state in Brazil. After years of money being dumped into the games, IOC felt it is not possible to delay or move the Rio Games because of Zika. With an estimated 500,000 foreign tourists who will flock into Rio for the Games, there are enough chances that Brazil's Zika will spread globally. The decision to continue Summer Olympics in Rio is purely a financial decision, not a logical one.

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Haiti made its first appearance at the 2nd edition of the Olympic Games in the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. The country's first Olympic prize came 24 later, in 1924, when the seven members of Haiti's shooting team took third place in the free rifle competition. Then second and so far the last Olympic medal was won by Silvio Cator, he took the silver in men's long jump; his 7.58 meter effort was 16 cm short of gold (Edward Hamm). Since then the country has not won any medal in the Olympic Games.

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The Summer Olympic Game was first held in 1896. It is an international multi-sport event which occurs once in every four years under the organization of the International Olympic Committee. The city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil has been elected host city of the Games of the 27h Olympics and it is due to take place from 5 to 21 August 2016. Rio will be the first South American city ever to host the summer games and the first place to hold Olympic in a Portuguese-speaking country. The competition venues will be clustered in four zones - Barra, Copacabana, Deodoro and Maracanã. The competition will include 306 events out of 42 Olympic sports disciplines over the course of 19 days (August 3rd and 4th football) and will yield 136 medals for women, 161 for men and nine mixed medals. This year, record number of countries (207 countries, new entrants are Kosovo and South Sudan) are participating in a record number of events. These sporting events will take place at 34 competition venues in the host city and at 5 venues in the cities of São Paulo (Brazil's largest city), Brasília (Brazil's capital), Belo Horizonte, Salvador, and Manaus. The Rio 2016 opening ceremony will be at the world famous football (soccer) Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on August 5, 2016.

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