Barbados at the 2008 Summer Olympics
| Barbados at the 2008 Summer Olympics |
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| IOC code | BAR | ||||||||
| NOC | Barbados Olympic Association | ||||||||
| Website | www |
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| in Beijing | |||||||||
| Competitors | 8 in 3 sports | ||||||||
| Flag bearer | Bradley Ally | ||||||||
| Medals |
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| Summer Olympics appearances (overview) | |||||||||
| Other related appearances | |||||||||
 British West Indies (1960) |
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Barbados sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. The island nation made its tenth appearance as an independent nation upon its arrival in Beijing. Eight athletes across three sports and ten events represented Barbados, marking the smallest delegation in its history up to the Beijing Games. Its runners and swimmers advanced past the first rounds in their events in four of their nine events, although none advanced to their events' final rounds or medaled. The nation's flagbearer during the Beijing Games was swimmer Bradley Ally.
Barbados is the easternmost of the islands located within the Caribbean Sea. Home to 280,000 residents, Barbados was first settled by the British in the 1620s. The nation remained a British colony until it declared total independence from the United Kingdom in 1966. The first appearance of a uniquely Barbadian delegation at the Olympic games came two years after it declared independence. At its debut, nine male athletes arrived to participate at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Previously, Barbados (as a British colony) constituted a major part of the West Indies Federation along with Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, which sent a delegation to participate at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.
Between its 1968 debut and its appearance at the Beijing Olympics, Barbadian delegations appeared at every Summer Olympics except for the 1980 Summer Olympics, which took place in Moscow in the Soviet Union. With the exceptions of the 1968 and the 2008 Barbadian teams, every appearance by Barbados at the Olympics (as of Beijing) included at least ten athletes; its smallest delegation arrived in 2008, carrying only eight competitors. All the delegations except the one that arrived in 1968 have included female athletes. Prior to and including the 2008 Beijing Olympics, there had been one medalist from Barbados. Obadele Thompson won a bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, as part of Barbados' most successful showing at any Olympic games as of 2008.
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