Bermuda Remains Smallest Olympic Medal Winner

Although Bermuda came close to losing our distinction of being the smallest country to ever win an Olympic medal, the record still stands and the island looks set to retain the honour for at least another four years.

San Marino —  population 31,000 — fielded a 4-person team for the 2012 Olympics, with sharpshooter Alessandra Perilli giving the tiny nation their highest ever Olympic finish when she narrowly missed a medal, placing 4th.

Although 205 nations are competing in the Olympics, the medal table shows approximately 80 nations have won at least one medal, meaning over 160 nations did not achieve a medal win.

Bermuda’s one all-time medal does rank us above 80 odd countries who have never won an Olympic medal, with most the medal-less countries significantly larger than us, with populations up to 150 million people.

Bermuda’s one medal came in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal when Clarence Hill won a Bronze medal in boxing. Mr. Hill won the medal in style, knocking out his opponent less than three minutes into the second round.

And with the 2012 Olympic coming to a close with no apparent medal threats from any of the smaller nations – Bermuda looks set to remain the smallest country with an Olympic medal for at least 40 years.

Despite being one of the smallest nations in the Games, there were high points for Bermuda in these Olympics with all of our eight-strong team contributing.

Roy Allan Burch won his heat setting a new Bermuda record, long jumper Tyrone Smith became the first track & field athlete in 15 years make the finals, and his fellow long jumper Arantxa King placed 13th missing the finals by only 1 centimeter.

Sailors Jesse and Zander Kirkland had some strong finishes including one 2nd and two 6ths, equestrian Jillian Terceria qualified for the next round, triathlete Tyler Butterfield recorded the fastest time during the cycling portion while Flora Duffy managed to overcome a crash to finish the race.

Locals also got to witness the first time a Bermudian played in an Olympic basketball game with Jenaya Wade Fray part of the Great Britain squad.

#Olympics

Category: All, Sports