People’s Republic of China Ambassador to Jamaica, Tian Qi has been immensely impressed with the country’s continued athletic dominance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games in Japan. 

Reacting after Jamaica’s clean sweep in the women’s 100m event, Ambassador Qi beamed with pride that the trio of Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson repeated a feat first achieved in Beijing at the 2008 Olympic Games. 

Here are his remarks in full below:

“Big up Jamaica! The world cheers for Jamaica again!

On the last day of July, the world once again witnessed Jamaican athletes making a new history as they delivered in magnificent style, a clean sweep in the Women’s 100M sprint at the Tokyo Olympics, following the miracle that Jamaican sprinters created at the 2008 Games in Beijing.

I extend my warmest congratulations to Elaine Thompson Herah, who won the gold medal erasing the 33-year Olympic record; Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who took the silver medal becoming the most decorated female 100M athlete at the Olympic Games; and Shericka Jackson, who took the bronze medal.

This honour belongs to the people of Jamaica and to all mankind. The spirit of the Jamaican athletes, pushing themselves to the limit of human endeavour, is a tremendous boost to our confidence and determination to overcome the difficulties of the current COVID-19 pandemic.

At the Beijing Olympics in August 2008, Usain Bolt commanded global attention when he broke the men’s 100M world record and also made the name Jamaica famous throughout China. 

As a world sports powerhouse, Jamaica has offered China extremely valuable scholarships to train many of our coaches and athletes. 

In turn, China has offered Jamaica a three-year sports training programme which started in early 2018 and trained nearly 400 athletes in seven non-traditional sporting disciplines for Jamaica. 

This programme has effectively improved the competitiveness of Jamaican athletes. The exchange and cooperation between the two countries in the field of sports has greatly contributed to the people-to-people contact and has been welcomed by both peoples.

Looking back, Bolt’s wonderful performance at the Beijing Olympics and the scene of 100,000 spectators singing “Happy birthday” for him after the 200-meter game seems like just yesterday. 

While wishing better performance of Jamaican athletes at the Tokyo Olympics, I look forward to another successful season for Jamaican athletes at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing!

Let’s join hands to work harder to achieve the goals of ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together’!”