Obadele "Oba" Thompson BSS (born 30 March 1976) is a Barbados-born former sprinter, lawyer, author, and speaker. He won Barbados's first and only Olympic medal as an independent country by placing third in the 100 metres at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He is a three-time Olympian (1996, 2000, and 2004), and a finalist at each Olympics. His personal best performances are 9.87 seconds for the 100 m, 19.97 seconds for the 200 metres (both Barbadian records), and 45.38 seconds for the 400 metres. He has held the indoor 55 metres world record (5.99 sec.) since 1997.
Obadele's Olympic success followed a collegiate career at the University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP) where he amassed several prestigious awards for his academics, athletics, and leadership. As a collegian, he won four individual NCAA sprint titles: indoor 200 m (1996 and 1997) and the outdoor 100 and 200 metres (1997). He set two NCAA records: indoor 55 m (1997) and indoor 200 m (1996). He established two world records: 55 m (1997) and the World Junior 100 m (1994). In 1996, he ran the then-fastest 100 m recorded under all conditions (9.69 sec.).
He was an eleven-time NCAA All-American and a sixteen-time Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Champion. Thompson won several Athlete of the Year awards, including the UTEP Athlete of the Year (1996 and 1997), US Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) NCAA Division I Male Indoor Athlete of the Year (1997), and the Stan Bates WAC Male Student-Athlete of the Year (1997). He has also been listed as one of UTEP's all-time top 10 male athletes.
Thompson was a three-time USTFCCCA Academic All-American (1995–1997). In 1996, he became a member of Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS) honor society, the highest recognition business students worldwide can receive from an Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accredited business program. In 1997, he was named a College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) First-Team At-Large Academic All-American (formerly the GTE First-Team At-Large Academic All-American award) and received the State of Texas Certificate of Merit for his exemplary achievement in academics and athletics. In 1998, he became a UTEP Alumni Association Top Ten Senior awardee, and received the NCAA Today's Top VIII Award (now the NCAA Today's Top 10) for outstanding leadership, athletics and academics, along with two-time NFL Super Bowl Champion, Peyton Manning, who attended the University of Tennessee.
After retiring from a decade-long professional athletics career, Thompson published his first book, Secrets of a Student-Athlete: A Reality Check, which was endorsed by legendary Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski. Thompson was a keynote speaker at the official launch of the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup in Barbados and has participated in leadership development programs, including with the West Indies Cricket Team. He has also served variously as a speaker and panellist on matters related to sports management, performance, and anti-doping.
Thompson was inducted into the UTEP Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2007, and into the UTEP Athletics and Drake Relays Halls of Fame in 2011.
He graduated from UTEP summa cum laude in economics and marketing and received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Texas School of Law. He practices international arbitration and litigation.
Contents
Athletics career
Junior athletics
Obadele began his athletic career at about six years old in Barbados at the Charles F. Broomes Primary School before transferring to Wesley Hall Junior School. However, his talents blossomed at his secondary school, Harrison College, under the tutelage of his physical education teacher, Orlando Greene (Barbados 800 m national record holder). He was also coached by respected Barbadian coaches Frank "Blackie" Blackman and the late Anthony Lovell.
Thompson first represented Barbados at age 14, winning the 100 and 200 metres at the 1990 Caribbean Union of Teachers (CUT) Games in Georgetown, Guyana. He again showed promise by winning the 100 m in the under-17 age division at the 1991 CARIFTA Games in Port of Spain, Trinidad. The CARIFTA Games is an annual Caribbean junior track and field championship that has produced notable Caribbean sprinters including Usain Bolt, Merlene Ottey and Pauline Davis-Thompson. Over the next three years, Thompson dominated the 100 m at the regional junior level, winning four successive CARIFTA Games 100 m titles (twice in both the under-17 and under-20 divisions), and not losing to a Caribbean junior sprinter at this distance since he was 14 years old. In 1993, Thompson became the Barbados national senior 100 m champion, and placed third and second in the 100 and 200 metres, respectively, at the Pan American Junior Athletics Championships in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. A few weeks later, at only 17 years old, he won his first 100 m title at the 1993 Senior Central American and Caribbean Championships (CAC) in Cali, Colombia, clocking a slightly wind-assisted 10.30 sec. (+2.1 m/s wind).
Despite attending one of the top academic high schools in the Caribbean and being among the best sprinters in his age group in the world, he was initially not recruited by any universities because Barbados was then only known for being a top tourist destination and producing outstanding cricketers, not sprinters. He was also not invited to the top American junior track meets for similar reasons. Not deterred, in early 1993, Thompson contacted Hall of Fame former UTEP head track coach, Bob Kitchens, who had trained Nigerian sprinter, Olapade Adeniken, to the 1992 NCAA Outdoor 100 and 200 metres titles.
In August 1993, Thompson left Barbados on an athletic scholarship to become part of UTEP's long legacy of outstanding track and field athletes, which includes: Bob Beamon (1968 Olympic long jump champion), Suleiman Nyambui (1980 Olympic 5000 m silver medalist), Bert Cameron (1983 World Champion in the 400 m), Blessing Okagbare (2008 Olympic long jump silver medalist), and Churandy Martina (European Champion in the 100 and 200 metres).
Senior athletics
Obadele started the 1996 season on fire, winning his first NCAA Indoor Championship in an NCAA indoor 200 m record. His time of 20.36 sec. shattered the old mark of 20.59 sec. set seven years earlier by four-time Olympic Champion, Michael Johnson, and equaling the then third-fast time in that event.
To celebrate his 20th birthday, Thompson ran 45.38 sec. in his first competitive 400 m since he was 13 years old. Two weeks later, in his season-opening 100 m, he clocked the fastest time ever recorded by a human under any conditions—a wind-assisted time of 9.69 sec.—which could not be ratified as an official world record because the tailwind (+5 m/s) far exceeded the +2.0 m/s legal limit. This performance broke the mark set by Carl Lewis in 1988 (9.78 sec.) and stood for 12 years until Tyson Gay ran a wind-aided 9.68 sec. at the 2008 US Olympic Trials.
Thompson sustained a groin injury during that race, forcing him to miss practice for a week. Injuries struck again months later in the semifinals of the 100 and 200 metres (groin and hamstring strains, respectively) at the 1996 NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon. He withdrew from the meet, extinguishing the anticipated showdown with Trinidadian sprinter, Ato Boldon of UCLA.
Sidelined by those injuries for three weeks, Thompson's once bright Olympic prospects darkened grimly as he returned to training with only one month to prepare for his first Olympic Games. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, he reached the 100 m semifinals, but exceeded expectations by finishing fourth in the 200 m finals behind Michael Johnson, who set an amazing new world record of 19.32 sec., Frankie Fredericks of Namibia (19.68 sec.) and Boldon (19.80 sec.). Obadele's fourth-place run of 20.14 sec. established a new Barbados national record, and placed him ahead of Mike Marsh (the defending Olympic 200 m champion) and Jeff Williams (1995 World Championship 200 m bronze medalist). At only 20 years old, Track & Field News magazine ranked Thompson #5 in the 200 m in the world.
Obadele started his senior collegiate season by winning the WAC indoor 55 m in 5.99 sec.—a new NCAA record and his second world record. He is the first and only man to go under the 6-second barrier in that event. At the NCAA Indoor Championships, he became the third male athlete to win back-to-back 200 m titles. Unfortunately, he false started in the 55 m finals, despite being heavily favoured to win after running 6.08 sec. in the semifinals, which was 0.10 sec. faster than all competitors at the entire meet. In May, he defeated the 1996 Olympic 100 m champion and world record holder, Donovan Bailey, in the 100 m in Tempe, Arizona. Thompson also co-captained his team to back-to-back WAC Outdoor titles. In rainy conditions at the NCCA Outdoor Championships in Bloomington, Indiana, he won the NCAA 100 and 200 metres in 10.13 sec. and 20.03 sec., respectively, running the latter into a heavy headwind. He became only the sixth person since 1969 to win this double.
Personal life
Thompson was born in St. Michael to Professor Alvin O. Thompson, a Guyanese professor emeritus of African and Caribbean history at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill, Barbados, and Hilda Thompson, a registered nurse from Bermuda. Although Prof. Thompson never earned an athletic scholarship nor had formal coaching, he won the 100 m at the 1963 Jamaica National Championships, while studying at UWI in Mona, Jamaica. In 1966, as a postgraduate student at the University of London, he won the 100 m at British Universities Championships, earned the Arthur Wint Award for the most significant performance at the London University's Athletic Championships, and was awarded the prestigious University of London's "Purple" for his sporting excellence.
In February 2007, Thompson married former American sprinter and basketball player, Marion Jones. They have three children.
Recognition in Barbados
In 1995, Barbadian soca band, Krosfyah, released the song Obadelepraising Thompson's outstanding achievements. Lead singer, Edwin Yearwood, won the 1995 Pic-O-De-Crop Calypso Monarch singing this tune, which became highly popular throughout in the Caribbean region and with the Caribbean diaspora.
On his return to Barbados after his Olympic medal-winning performance, Thompson was greeted by thousands of well-wishers who lined the streets as his motorcade travelled from the airport to the Barbados Government headquarters, where the former Prime Minister, Owen Arthur, conferred on him the title of Ambassador and Special Envoy for Youth. Thompson was awarded the country's fourth highest award, the Barbados Service Star Award, for his outstanding contribution to sports (1997), the Barbados Minister's Award for Sports (2004), and was three times named the Barbados National Sports Personality of the year (1994, 1996, and 2000).
Civic involvement
Thompson has been involved with the Barbados Special Olympics and featured in an advertising campaign against drug abuse for the United Nations Drug Control Programme. He also filmed a television commercial for UNICEF's "The Rights of Children" to draw attention to the treatment and rights of children. An asthmatic since three years old, Thompson participated in the 2001 World Asthma Day and filmed a television commercial based on his experience as a lifelong asthmatic.
Notable public features
Thompson was featured in his own NBC Olympic television commercial shown during the 1999 MLB World Series.
NCAA titles
NCAA Indoor Championships
200 m: 1996, 1997
NCAA Outdoor Championships
100 m: 1997
200 m: 1997
Track records
As of 6 September 2024, Thompson holds the following track records for 100 metres and 200 metres.
