Trinidad and Tobago at the 2008 Summer Olympics |
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IOC code | TTO (TRI used at these Games) |
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NOC | Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee | ||||||||
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in Beijing | |||||||||
Competitors | 28 in 4 sports | ||||||||
Flag bearer |
George Bovell (opening) Richard Thompson (closing) |
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Medals Ranked 47th |
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Summer Olympics appearances (overview) | |||||||||
Other related appearances | |||||||||
British West Indies (1960) |
Trinidad and Tobago sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. Its participation in the Beijing games marked its eighteenth Olympic appearance and fifteenth Summer Olympic appearance since its debut at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, excluding its joint participation with Jamaica and Barbados in 1960 as the West Indies Federation. With 28 athletes, more Trinidadians had competed at the Olympics than in any other single Olympic games in its history before Beijing. Athletes representing Trinidad and Tobago advanced past the preliminary or qualification rounds in twelve events and reached the final rounds in four of those events. Of those four events, silver medals were won in the men's 100 meters (by Richard Thompson) and in the men's 4x100 meters relay (by Keston Bledman, Marc Burns, Emmanuel Callender, Richard Thompson, and Aaron Armstrong, who participated in the first round only). The latter was upgraded to gold in 2017 when one member of the quartet that crossed the line first, Nesta Carter, tested positive for a banned substance. The nation's flag bearer at the opening ceremony that year was swimmer and Athens medalist George Bovell.
Trinidad and Tobago is a two-island nation in the Caribbean Sea that lies close to South America. The nation has participated in the Olympics since the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, and has appeared at every Summer Olympics since then with the exception of the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, when it joined Jamaica and Barbados in a political union called the West Indies Federation. Overall, Trinidad and Tobago had participated in eighteen Olympic games (15 Summer Olympics and 3 Winter Olympics) between its 1948 debut and its appearance at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, and its fifteenth Olympic game since its independence, which was in 1962. The Trinidadian delegation in Beijing comprised its largest delegation by far, with 28 athletes. The previous record included 19 athletes, which happened in 1968, 1972, 2000 and 2004. Between 1948 and 2008, Trinidad and Tobago accumulated 14 medals (one gold, five silver and eight bronze); two of those medals were won in Beijing (a silver in the men's 100 meters another in the men's 4x100 meters relay). Richard Thompson, a male track athlete, medaled in the men's 100 meters but also medaled as a member of the Trinidadian relay team. All Olympians participating in Beijing for Trinidad and Tobago, with the exception of Dexter St. Louis in table tennis, were planning as of the end of the Beijing Olympics to continue training for future Olympic games.