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James Wren-Gilkes, the Olympic Medalist that never was
By Rawle Toney
Kaieteur Sports – The 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal remain etched in the memories of track and field enthusiasts, not for what happened on the track, but for what could have been.
James Wren-Gilkes
Many believe Guyana missed out on its first Olympic medal, perhaps even a gold, when James Wren-Gilkes was denied the chance to compete.
At the time, Guyana’s government, led by Forbes Burnham, joined a boycott alongside African nations. Their protest stemmed from the International Olympic Committee’s refusal to ban New Zealand.
The All Blacks rugby team had toured apartheid South Africa, flouting the global sporting embargo. African nations demanded New Zealand’s exclusion, but the IOC argued rugby was not an Olympic sport and therefore outside its jurisdiction. In response, dozens of countries walked away. Guyana followed.
The timing was devastating. Wren-Gilkes was in the best form of his career. Analysts rated him ahead of Trinidad and Tobago’s Hasely Crawford and Jamaica’s Donald Quarrie, who would go on to dominate the Games.
Crawford claimed the 100m gold, Quarrie took silver in the 100m and gold in the 200m. But many believed that the 200m medal could have belonged to Guyana.
Instead, Gilkes became known as “the Olympic medalist that never was.”
His career still glittered with achievement. The 200m was his specialty, and his 20.14 seconds run in Berlin in 1978 remains Guyana’s national record nearly five decades later.
Between 1974 and 1979, he was consistently ranked among the world’s top 10 sprinters in both the 100m and 200m.
At the 1975 Pan American Games in Mexico City, Gilkes stormed to gold in the 200m with a time of 20.43 seconds, beating America’s Larry Brown and Bahamian Mike Sands. Four years later, he settled for silver at the Pan Am Games, finishing behind Cuba’s Silvio Leonard, who would go on to win silver at the 1980 Olympics.
The Commonwealth Games also showcased his brilliance. In Edmonton in 1978, Allan Wells of England edged him out in the 200m, running 20.12 seconds to Gilkes’ 20.18.
Wells would later win Olympic gold in Moscow. That same year, Gilkes stood on the podium in Zurich at the prestigious Weltklasse meet, part of the IAAF Golden Sprints, reserved only for the world’s elite.
His collegiate career was equally remarkable. First at Fisk University and later at the University of Southern California, Gilkes carved his name into American track history. He ranked among the top 10 all-time Trojans in both sprints. Yet for all his accolades, Montreal 1976 remained the great wound.
FLASH BACK! James Wren-Gilkes, left, practices his starts from the block under the watchful eye of Bulldogs track coach John Martin on April 18, 1974 at Fisk University. (IMAGO photo).
Gilkes recalled in a Stabroek News article during his visit to Guyana, “I was really hurt because that year I had a sciatic nerve problem and it was very painful but I learnt to handle the pain. A doctor from the United States had volunteered his time and everything to come to the Olympics to take care of me so that I could compete.”
The decision felt haphazard. According to Gilkes, “…we boycotted the day before the Olympics started, the team was there so there were a lot of people who were upset. When I got some confirmation on why we boycotted it didn’t make sense to me because I was told that they spoke to the Minister of Sports, who was Shirley Field-Ridley and she asked what we wanted to do since Trinidad and Jamaica claimed they were going to boycott.”
“My understanding was that she said if you guys don’t know what to do, come home and they took it as a boycott after I had a whole team assembled,” Gilkes stated at the time.
The consequences were lasting. To this day, Guyana has only one Olympic medal, thanks to boxer Michael Parris’ bronze in Moscow in 1980.
Gilkes himself tried to salvage his chance, applying to compete as an independent athlete under the Olympic flag. The IOC denied his request.
Looking back, he remains convinced Guyana could have left Montreal with a historic haul.
“We could have gotten at least five to seven medals,” he stated, while explaining, “I knew at least I would have gotten two, probably June Griffith would have medaled in the 400m, we had an awesome 4x100m relay team and the guy that brought me to the US, Richard McKenzie, he would have medaled in the 800m.”
Wren-Gilkes continued of McKenzie “At the time he was running 1m: 49s something and he was getting better and better in practice everyday and to me I knew he would have run like 1m: 47s-1m: 45s”.
Wren-Gilkes finally made his Olympic debut in Moscow in 1980, where he reached the semi-finals of both sprints before bowing out. But the sting of 1976 never faded.
For Guyana, the story is bittersweet. James Wren-Gilkes was a once-in-a-generation athlete, fast enough to stand on top of the Olympic podium. But politics kept him off the track, leaving a nation to wonder what might have been.
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That was really sad. I was a young primary school kid and do recall his exploits. To this day he remains our only world class male athlete. He used to win and challenge the world’s best regularly. I remember being really disappointed for him and by the time 1980 came around he was no longer as quick as he was in the years earlier.