Fifty-six years after it was represented at the Olympic Games for the first time, Guyana still has just a single bronze medal to show.
This country's inaugural entry to the Olympic Games was in 1948. Nine Olympics after their inaugural entry, boxer Michael Anthony Parris, Guyana's first and only Olympic medallist, won a bronze medal at the 1980 Games in Moscow.
To date, 68 Guyanese athletes have actually participated in Olympic Games. And of the number, five have participated in two Olympics. This number does not include those who went to the 1976 Montreal Games that Guyana boycotted along with the African Nations.
The five athletes that have participated in two Olympics are: Oslen Barr (1984/1988), Jennifer Inniss (1980/1984), James Joseph (1980/1984), Aubrey Richmond Gordon (1984/1992) and Paul Tucker (1996/2000).
Barr contested the 800 metres (m) and 1,500m races at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles; and the 800m event at the Seoul Olympics. His times for the 800m and 1,500m in 1984 were 1:46.42 and 3:53.24 respectively. In 1988, his 800m time was 1:5.92.
Inniss contested the 100m and long jump events in 1980 at the Moscow Olympics and the long jump only in 1984 at the Los Angeles Olympics. Her best time for the 100m was 11.3 seconds, while her best jump was 6.82 metres.
Tucker contested the men's 800m at both the Atlanta and Sydney Games.
Joseph and Gordon both contested the match sprints and other sprint events at the two Games they attended.
To date, the number of track-and-field athletes who have participated in the various Olympic Games is 29. The number of boxers is 18; cyclists, nine and weightlifters, seven.
For the 2004 Athens Olympics, Guyana will be represented for the second time by track athlete Aliann Pompey (women's 400m) and for the first time Marian Burnett (women's 800m). This year also, weightlifter Julian McWatt and swimmer Onan Thom will be making their debuts.
Thom will be the first swimmer to represent Guyana at Olympic Games.
At the 1948 London games, Guyana's first Olympic team comprised 100m and long jump athlete Charles Thompson; cyclist Laddie Lewis and weightlifters Orlando Chaves Buttery and Alphonso Long Correia.
At the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Guyana was represented by weightlifter Cecil Moore only.
For the 1956 Melbourne Games, 100m and 200m runners Oliver Stanford Hunter and Claudette I. Masdammer, as well as weightlifters Winston Roy McArthur and Michael Henry Swain made up Guyana's team. Hunter's times for the 100m and 200m events were 11.22 seconds and 21.4 seconds respectively, while Masdammer's times were 12.87 and 25.73 respectively.
At the 1960 Rome Games, Guyana was represented by track-and-field athletes Brenda Archer, George DePeana, Clayton Glasgow and Ralph Gomes and boxer Carl Crawford.
Archer was a high jumper who at the time was jumping 1.61m. DePeana was clocking 15:54.2 for the 5000m race, while Glasgow was running 22.75 seconds for the 200m and 50.82 seconds for the 400m. Gomes's time for the 800m was 1:50.6.
In 1964, weightlifter Martin Dias was Guyana's only representative at the Tokyo Games.
For the 1968 Mexico Olympics, Guyana was represented by marathon runner Harry Prowell who was at the time clocking two hours 39 minutes 11 seconds for the 26.2-mile race; boxers Charles Amos and Dhanraj Singh; cyclist Aubrey Bryce and weightlifter Rudolph James.
In 1972, boxers Courtney Atherley and Reginald Forde along with cyclist Neville Hunte, were Guyana's representatives at the Munich Olympics.
For the 1980 Moscow Games track athletes James Wren Gilkes and Inniss; boxers Michael Anthony Parris, Fitzroy Brown, Barrington Cambridge and Alfred Thomas; and cyclists James Joseph and Errol McLean were Guyana's representatives.
Gilkes was clocking 10.19 seconds and 20.49 seconds for the 100m and 200m events respectively.
In 1984, track-and-field athletes Barr, June Marcia Griffith, Earl Haley and Inniss as well as boxers Gordon Carew, Junior Ward and Stephen Frank and cyclists Joseph, Aubrey Gordon and Randolph `Randy' Toussaint represented Guyana at the Los Angeles Games. Griffith had a personal best time of 51.37 for the 400m.
In 1988, Barr, Marlyn Dewarder and Curt Hampstead were the country's track-and-field athletes for the Seoul Olympics, while George Allison, Adrian Carew and Colin Moore were the boxers. Colin Abrams and Byron James were the cyclists.
Dewarder's time for the 400m was 52.89, while Hampstead's time for the men's 110m hurdles was 14.30 seconds.
Track-and-field athletes Najuma `Nancy' Fletcher, Desmond Hector and Mark Mason represented the Golden Arrowhead at the 1992 Barcelona Games along with boxers Dillon Carew and Andrew Lewis and cyclist Gordon.
Fletcher who contested the women's high jump was jumping 1.79m, while Mason who contested the long jump was leaping 7.94m. Hector was clocking 1:50.03 for the men's 800m.
At the 1996 Atlanta Games, track-and-field athletes Nicola Martial, Roger Gill, Lancelot Gittens, Andrew Harry, Richard James, Malcolm Watts, Clifford Wong and Paul Tucker as well as boxer John Douglas were Guyana's representatives.
At the last Olympics (2000 Sydney), track-and-field athletes Pompey, Ian Roberts, Paul Tucker and Charles Allen were Guyana's Olympians.