Four statues of star Usain Bolt, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and Asafa Powell, will be made and mounted in honour of their outstanding contribution to the development of Jamaican track and field.
Usain Bolt’s is expected to be erected by the end of September 2017; Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, by the end of December 2017; and Veronica Campbell-Brown and Asafa Powell, whose statues are to be erected in 2018. They will be mounted at the National Stadium Statue Park as part of a wider planned development of the stadium complex, which includes the National Sports Museum.
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The Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport had commissioned the production of statues of the four track and field athletes last year.
During the media launch of Jamaica 55 on the lawns of Jamaica House in April, Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon. Olivia Grange informed that a virtual sports museum, which will trace and showcase Jamaica’s performance in sports, is expected to be completed during the period.
This is to be followed by the establishment of a physical sports museum at the Independence Park Complex at the National Stadium.
Jamaica’s elite athletes will soon no longer need to travel outside of the country to receive the best treatment for injuries and other ailments.
This, as the Government plans to set up a Caribbean Sports Medicine Centre on the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI).
To be established in collaboration with UWI and sprinting sensation Usain Bolt and his team, the centre is one of the legacy projects being undertaken as part of the year-long ‘Jamaica 55’ Independence celebrations. Jamaica 55 activities are being held under the theme ‘Celebrating Jamaicans at Home and Abroad’.
