A Small Delegation in a Great Celebration

Dion Crabbe with Olympic Village Pulse reporters Efthymia Ntivi & Iasonas Kantas

“We might be a small country, but we have great expectations from these Olympic Games”, the British Virgin Islands Chef de Mission, Dean Greenaway, told us. In fact, the 25,000 residents of the Virgin Islands are hardly intimidated by the fact that they are a small country. Besides, ever since 1984 when the country started participating in the Olympic Games it can be proud of its athletes’ quality, which is without doubt far more important than quantity.

At any rate, the Athens Games is a special celebration for this islanders’ country, for the additional reason that they celebrate their 20th year of uninterrupted participation at the Games, as the badges they freely hand out proclaim. They also hope that this celebration will reach its high point with the participation of their delegation’s single athlete, Dion Crabbe, in the 200 m finals. The athlete himself told us “once you get in the finals, anything is possible.”  Amazingly, Crabbe is not stressed by the fact that all his country’s hopes rest squarely on him. “When you come from a small country, sooner or later you get used to being ‘the one’ ”, he said.

The celebratory spirit is not only reserved for the stadium, so the apartment of the British Virgin Islands Delegation, open to everyone, is full of smiles, humor and picture taking. When asked about the summer ‘color’ that dominates the area, Dean Greenaway simply replied: “We made sure that us Caribbean people would be in the same building”.
After the interview we asked Dean Greenaway to let us take his picture for the Pulse, and he asked to take our picture in return. He told us then that his country’s interest in the Olympic Games is so big, that he was asked to create a web page for the Athens Olympics to let them experience the huge celebration that is the Olympic Village.

And if you are wondering about the origins of this country’s name, here is how the story goes: When Columbus first saw the islands, he was reminded of Saint Ursula and the 11,000 virgins. Seen from the ocean, the shape of Virgin Gorda Island looked like a woman lying on her back, while the smaller islands of the archipelago were the Saint’s maiden disciples.

Iasonas Kantas/ Efthymia Ntivi