James “Jim” Wedderburn was the first Barbadian to win an Olympic medal when he teamed up with Jamaicans Mal Spence, Keith Gardiner and George Kerr to win a bronze medal in the 4×400 yards relay at the 1960 Rome Games.
Fifty-two years later, a still fit-looking Wedderburn, who celebrated his 74th birthday, last month, looks back at this Olympic medal-winning performance.
Jim “Lolly” Wedderburn has undoubtedly been a trail blazer in athletics in Barbados, achieving a number of firsts.
A stand-out middle distance runner at The Lodge School, especially in the 440 yards, Wedderburn was the first Barbadian to receive an athletic scholarship to a university in the United States, way back in 1958.
A product of Bayfield, St Philip, Wedderburn studied at New York University, successfully completing a degree programme in physical education before returning home to become the first Government athletics coach.
Wedderburn, who has a stand at the National Stadium named after him, was awarded a Companion of the British Empire (CBE) by Government in 2000.
He was principal of the Edison Technical and Vocational High School in Rochester, New York, from 1990 to 1996, after serving as vice-principal and dean of students and department head.
But how did Wedderburn, just 22 years old then, become part of the bronze-winning British West Indies’ 4×400-yard relay team?
“I was encouraged by Mr Louis Lynch to come down to Jamaica to take part in their trials and from the Jamaican trials, the team was chosen for the Rome Games.
“For the 4×400 relay, they took six athletes. There were six of us, who were doing quite well, four Jamaicans, and one Trinidadian and one Barbadian (myself).
“Of course, the Jamaicans wanted four Jamaicans on that team but as Mr Lynch told me: “You got to be on that team”, and I was determined to make it.
That same year, 1960, Wedderburn had won the 440-yard event at the Inter Collegiate Athletic Association Championship in the United States in a commendable 46.1 seconds but with Caribbean territories competing under the Federation umbrella during that period instead of individually, he had to vie for selection on the West Indies team.
“George Kerr and Keith Gardner were the two most outstanding of the six of us and they were given the first two spots. We had to run off twice for the next two spots. Of course, I ran and I won and secured my spot on that team.
“From the old Jamaican team, I remembered Herb McKinley, who was the coach at the time, saying that in his time, the third leg was given to the oldest on the team, so the third leg was given to Keith Gardner. I was then chosen to start.
“I had to run the first leg and this made me a little nervous so to speak, because I had to put the team in a position to gain a medal and we were, as the saying went around the [Games] Village, we were considered to be among the medal winners,” Wedderburn noted.
“We drew the eighth lane, that was way on the outside and I remember coming out of the tunnel, and hearing Herb McKinley saying, ‘They coming at you Jim. They coming at you Jim’ as I walked from that tunnel which was more or less near the start of the 100 yards.
“I had to walk all the way down to the start of the 400 and I went down there with that on my mind all the time: ‘They coming at you Jim.’
“When the gun went, naturally, I forgot all about that as I had to do my job as I was well prepared for it and I handed over the baton in first place to Mal Spence.
“We were on the outside lane and by the time he cut from the outside to the inside, I think he was in second place. Then we dropped from second to third and we maintained that third position throughout,” Wedderburn said.
Wedderburn’s split was timed at 45.9 seconds while the overall time for the West Indies’ relay quartet, with Kerr anchoring the team home, was 3 minutes, 04 seconds.
But it wasn’t smooth-sailing for Wedderburn in the lead-up to the 4×400 relay final, being the only non-Jamaican in the quartet.
“In the beginning, I could feel that I wasn’t really welcomed because they wanted a four-man Jamaican team, but Keith Gardiner was the one who really reached out to me and pulled me in.
“He began to talk to me and made me feel welcome and started encouraging me and that made me feel really comfortable after that,” Wedderburn recalled.
Rome was Wedderburn’s only Olympics as he returned to Barbados in 1964.
“Here again, Mr Louis Lynch came into the picture and this was the beginning of the National Sports Council. He was working through Government to set up the Sports Council and he invited me to come back home and be a part of that.
“I came back and I became the first coach working with athletics in Barbados.”
Wedderburn had also represented Barbados at the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica when he failed to get past the first round.
“The conditions under which we were competing at that time weren’t the best, because I remember for the Commonwealth Games, I was called like the week before the Games.
“This was in July and I hadn’t trained since June, so it was difficult to come down and try to get yourself ready and prepare mentally and physically for that type of competition. My performance wasn’t good. I didn’t get past the first round,” Wedderburn said.
Wedderburn also competed in the 400-metre hurdles briefly and one of his most cherished moments is winning a bronze medal at the NCAA Championships with a time of 51.9 seconds.
He was also delighted when Obadele Thompson joined him in 2000 as the only Barbadians to win medals at the Olympics, gaining a bronze in the 100 metres in Sydney.