Colleen Wint-Bond, daughter of Arthur Wint has penned her latest novel, Arthur Loves to Run’, which is a story that of a Jamaican athlete who competed at many international events, including the 1948 and 1952 Olympic Games.
Arthur Wint won two gold and two silver medals, becoming the first Jamaican to win an Olympic gold medal. Arthur Wint represented the three important values of the Olympics: excellence, respect and friendship.
Wint-Bond was speaking at the book’s launch in May at the headquarters of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association said it was, in part, inspired by wanting her grandson to get to know more about his great-grandfather, who became Jamaica’s first Olympic champion in 1948.
She said it was important, not only for him, but for other youngsters to appreciate the legacy that Wint left behind as well as to recognise how far Jamaica had come in athletics.
“As I thought about my grandson, how much will we know about his great-grandfather other than finding it in some other museum. He needs to know it as a child. And that is really, I think, what I want youngsters to know that there is history behind us,” Wint-Bond said.
“We are all standing on someone’s shoulders. So the current crop of athletes are standing on someone else’s shoulders, and they stood on somebody else. And we need to understand that we didn’t just arrive here and be wonderful.”
In referencing the journey that Wint and others at the 1948 Olympics travelled, Wint-Bond said that Jamaica’s success should not be taken for granted.
The book is a part of a series that Wint-Bond hopes to produce, referencing the multifaceted life of Wint, which included his time as a pilot in the Royal Air Force.
Jamaica Olympic Association president, Christopher Samuda, said the book serves as a vehicle for change as well as to ensure that generations remember their sporting roots.
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