Did Merlene Ottey ever win an Olympic gold medal?

Jamaican-born sprinter Merlene Ottey competed at seven Olympic Games between 1980 and 2004 and won nine medals, but none of them gold. Indeed, the closest she came to winning an Olympic gold medal was when beaten 0.005 seconds by American Gail Devers in the final of the women’s 100 metres in Atlanta, Georgia in 1996. That year, Ottey also won a silver medal in the women’s 200 metres, beaten 0.12 seconds by Frenchwoman Marie-José Pérec in the final.

Ottey claimed her third, and final, Olympic silver medal in the women’s 4 x 100-metre relay in Sydney, Australia alongside Tanya Lawrence, Veronica Campbell and Beverly McDonald. It was an event that gripped the nation in much the same way that australian pokies online grab the attention of Aussie casino goers. By that stage of her career, Ottey had moved to Slovenia, but did not become a Slovenian citizen until 2002. Thereafter, she competed for her adopted country in her seventh, and final, Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, but was eliminated in the semi-finals of the women’s 100 metres by just 0.03 seconds.

All told, Ottey won 30 medals at the Olympic Games, World Outdoor Championships and World Indoor Championships, including three gold medals apiece in the latter two competitions. Exactly half of her major championship medals were bronze, leading to the nickname ‘Bronze Queen’ as well as the rather more flattering ‘Queen of the Track’. Ottey ran her last race at championship level, at the age of 52, in the European Atthletics Championhsip in 2012. Like someone on a crazy vegas online casino run, Ottey defied the odds at every step. She was a rare talent and only a lack of good fortune (that others often receive) kept her from being an Olympic Gold Medalist.