The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and 88% of its population. The archipelagic country consists of more than 3,000 islands, cays, and islets in the Atlantic Ocean, and is located north of Cuba and northwest of the island of Hispaniola and the Turks and Caicos Islands, southeast of the U.S. state of Florida and east of the Florida Keys. The capital is Nassau on the island of New Providence. The Royal Bahamas Defence Force describes the Bahamas' territory as encompassing 470,000 km2 (180,000 sq mi) of ocean space.
Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias was an American athlete who excelled in golf, basketball, baseball, and track and field. She won two gold medals and a silver in track and field at the 1932 Summer Olympics before turning to professional golf and winning 10 LPGA major championships.
Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee is a retired American track and field athlete who competed in both the heptathlon and long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals at four different Olympic Games. Joyner-Kersee was also a four-time gold medalist at the world championships. Since 1988, she has held the world record for heptathlon.
Tonique Williams-Darling is a Bahamian sprint athlete. She won the gold medal in the 400 meters at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie is a former Bahamian sprinter who specialised in the 100 and 200 metres. Ferguson-McKenzie participated in five Olympics.
The Bahamas competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004. This was the nation's fourteenth appearance at the Olympics, except the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow because of the United States boycott.
Frank Garfield Rutherford, Jr. MBE is a retired triple jumper from the Bahamas. He competed in three Olympic Games, and won a bronze medal in 1992, becoming the first Bahamian Track and Field Olympic medalist. He now runs a program which prepares young Bahamian students to play college basketball and American football in the United States. He was a four-time participant at the World Championships in Athletics.
Pamela Kilborn-Ryan, AM, MBE is an Australian former athlete who set world records as a hurdler. For three years, she was ranked as the world's top woman hurdler.
Catherine "Kathy" Laverne McMillan is a retired American athlete, who mainly competed in the long jump.
Jean Catherine Pickering was a female track and field athlete from Great Britain, who competed mainly in the 80 metres hurdles and long jump.
Derrick Atkins is a Bahamian sprinter. Atkins specializes in the 100 metres event and also holds the national record, with a time of 9.91 seconds. He is the second cousin of former world record holder Asafa Powell.
The Bahamas sent a delegation of athletes to compete in the 2008 Summer Olympics, which were held in Beijing, People's Republic of China from 8 to 24 August 2008. Its Beijing appearance marked its fourteenth time at the Olympics since its début at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. The delegation included 25 athletes across four sports and nineteen distinct events. Its athletes advanced to semifinals in eight events and finals in five events, medaling in two of them. The Bahamian delegation was one of the largest sent between its début and 2008. The country's flag bearer was Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie.
Renward Ricardo Wells is a Bahamian politician and retired sprinter who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bamboo Town from 2012 to 2021. In sprinting, he specialized in the 100 metres.
Frances Anne "Francie" Larrieu Smith is an American track and field athlete. She was the flagbearer at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona for the United States of America. Larrieu Smith was the third female American athlete to make five American Olympic teams, behind the six of fencer Jan York-Romary and Track and Field's Willye White. The feat was later equaled by basketball player Teresa Edwards, track and field's Gail Devers, cyclist/speedskater Chris Witty and swimmer Dara Torres. After one of the longest elite careers on record, she retired from that level of competition.
Martha Rae Watson is a retired American track and field athlete. She qualified for four Olympics, 1964–1976 in the long jump, but also was a fast enough sprinter to be on two United States 4 x 100 metres relay teams. She picked up the individual silver medal in the long jump and the gold in the 4 x 100 relay at the 1975 Pan American Games. She was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1987.
The South Florida Bulls track and field program represents the University of South Florida in the sport of track and field. The program consists of separate men's and women's teams and competes in the American Athletic Conference within NCAA Division I. Both of the Bulls track and field teams are coached by Erik Jenkins, who also coaches the USF cross country teams. The teams practice and host outdoor meets at the USF Track and Field Stadium. While the university sponsors indoor teams as well, the university does not have an indoor track facility suitable to host meets. There is an indoor track in the Campus Recreation Center which the teams use for practice, but it has no space for indoor field events or spectators.
Meta Davis Cumberbatch MBE was a Trinidad-born pianist, composer, poet, playwright and cultural activist, who spent the majority of her life in The Bahamas, where she used her talents to enhance the country's cultural development, becoming known as the "Mother of the Arts". At the 2014 Independence anniversary celebrations in Nassau she was honoured as a Bahamian "Cultural Warrior".
Picewell A. L. "Soca" Forbes is a Bahamian former Progressive Liberal Party politician and broadcaster who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mangrove Cay and South Andros from 2007 to 2021.
The most popular sports in the Bahamas are those of colonial British origin as well as those adopted from neighbouring United States. They include athletics, basketball, baseball, American football, swimming, softball, tennis, boxing, and volleyball track.
This article is about the Athletics in the Bahamas from the early 20th century to onward
