Artistes salute J'can olympians

Jamaican entertainers had nothing but love and appreciation for the island's athletes following their historic performance in the recently concluded Olympic Games held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

Team Jamaica copped 11 medals and placed third in athletics.

Beaming with pride, recording artiste Romain Virgo told THE STAR that it is always a wonderful feeling witnessing Jamaican athletes doing well. "Outside of the field events, we had people who do swimming, like Alia Atkinson and the youth that did diving [Yona Knight-Wisdom] for us which made me feel even more proud," he said.

extremely outstanding

The Love Sick singer added that the highlight of the Games for him was definitely Usain Bolt's momentous three-pack three-peat, becoming the only man ever to win both sprint events, and the 4x100m relays in three consecutive Olympic Games.

"That is extremely outstanding and something that I'm proud of as an artiste, and something I know the entire Jamaica is also proud of as well," he said. "It's just a wonderful feeling to see especially Elaine Thompson's double gold medal. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce continues to do well. Omar McLeod is a next youth wha me feel extremely proud of because normally we don't do well in hurdles, and he got gold."

great things

Equally elated about Jamaica's accomplishments is the My Dream artiste, Nesbeth. He is pleased because he knows the athletes have come a very far way to do great things for their country. "I am happy that the athletes have gone there and done their best, not only for their team, but for us Jamaicans as well as the entire Caribbean," Nesbeth said. "I ask them to continue to glance their past, acknowledge their present, and focus on the future, and what we have not gotten this time around, we will definitely work on getting in the future."

Dancehall diva Spice said she wanted to "big up the athletes" because they have done her and the entire country proud. "They did exceptionally well. I just want to say congratulations to every one of them. You dun know Bolt a the big man already, but I realised that there were some new faces that I didn't even know before, and they ended up making me proud," Spice said. "I want to encourage my girl Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce because she is my girl from day one. I realise she has an injury and I want to encourage her to never give up. I'm proud of her nonetheless, and I love all of them."

Songstress Raine Seville said there is a lot to celebrate as there were many big moments in this Olympics that she is proud of, but noted that there is always room for improvement. "Usain of course, he's just great. Shelly, knowing that she had her injury, she wasn't 100 going over there, but she went and she represented so well. Elaine getting her time to shine, that was a big moment. Omar created history. It was our first time in gymnastics and diving. We achieved a lot of special moments so I am extremely proud of them all," she said.