31 Years Ago, Frank Rutherford Made History

The Olympian Won The Bahamas’ First Olympic Track and Field Medal On This Day in 1992

The Bahamas has an established record for track and field excellence. 

Our “little country that could” has won 14 medals at the games, having won at least one medal in track and field at every games since 1992. 

This streak started on this day in 1992 when a 27-year-old named Frank Rutherford took to the track in Barcelona. 

Rutherford would run, hop, skip, and jump his way into history with a jump of 17.36 meters. Coming behind Americans Mike Conley Sr. (whose son basketball fans may or may not have heard of) and Charles Simpkins. 

Rutherford was always destined for greatness. He won multiple national championships for the University of Houston’s track and field team, around the same time his countryman Lynden Rose was Phi-Slamma Jamming. He would go on to become the first Bahamian to win a world championship, winning a bronze at the IAAF in 1987 in Rome, Italy. 
Today he’s known more for his youth program that has sent Bahamian kids to US colleges to play football and basketball. But Bahamian the Bahamas is known for its juggernaut track and field program, which has produced stars, from Debbie Ferguson to Shaunae Miller. And it all started with one Frank Rutherford. 

He jumped so that they can run (literally).