Local sports pundits still feel that Guyana's best chance of a medal at any Olympics since 1948 came and went in 1976, when the country joined the African nations and boycotted the Montreal Olympics.
That year, Guyana joined with 29 other countries to boycott the `sports jamboree', robbing its athletes who worked tirelessly and arduously to achieve every athletes' dream, winning an Olympic medal.
Guyana had sent a 27-member contingent comprising seven track and field athletes, five boxers, three cyclists and two judokas along with ten officials. It was the view of many Guyanese then and it still is now, that Guyana could have captured a host of medals in 1976.
An article in the New York Times in mid-July that year said Guyana had the chance of gaining at least four gold medals through track athletes James Wren Gilkes (200m), Rayfield `Pepe' Beaton (800m), the men's 4X100m relay team and boxer Cleveland Denny (lightweight). The article said the relay team, in a trial run in the USA, had equalled the then world record.
The track team had been training in the US under Jamaican Leo Davis, one month prior to the Games. Davis was appointed team coach for the Olympics.
Eon D'Ornellas
Gilkes who had won a gold medal in the men's 200m at the 1975 Mexico Pan American Games and had placed fourth behind Cuban Silvio Leonard in the men's 100m, was studying and training in the US and was then at his peak.
Gilkes would have come up against Jamaica's Don Quarrie, USA's Harvey Glance, Russia's double-sprint champion at the 1972 Munich Games Valery Borzou and Leonard.
The other members of the track and field team were Clifton Schultz, Dennis Collison, Aubrey Wilson, Richard McKenzie and John Beckles. Arnold Wilson was the manager.
The boxers were Denny, Kenny Bristol (welterweight), Evan Parris (bantamweight), Mark Harris (light welterweight) and Robert Nixon (light heavyweight). The manager was Major Watson Joseph and Humber Greene was the coach.
Geoffrey Sankies and Dionisio Joseph made up the two-man judo team and they were managed by general team manager Gordon Sankies.
The cyclists were Errol McLean, Neville Hunte and Eon D'Ornellas. The coach was Hassan Mohammed and the manager John `Doc' Anderson.
The other officials who accompanied the team were Sir Lionel Luckhoo (Chef de Mission) O.T. Donald and Barry Massay.
McLean and Hunte had earlier in the year beaten some top European cyclists at the Texaco Games in Trinidad and Tobago and Hunte subsequently went to train in Europe.
D'Ornellas was firing on all cylinders at the time in Canada, and having missed the opportunity of competing at the 1972 Munich Games because of terrorists threats, was raring to go.
The boxers had a three-month stint under the legendary Cuban coach Trotman Daly.
However, having arrived in Canada full of confidence and high morale, the hopes and aspirations of the locals were dashed when at 7 pm on July 18, team officials informed the Canadian Olympic Association that the Guyanese team was joining the other nations in boycotting the Games.
It was later reported that Gilkes went against the decision of the other athletes and officials to withdraw, since after Guyana's delegation left Montreal, Gilkes sought to run under the International Olympic Committee's flag. But his application was rejected by the IOC after Luckhoo protested.
This caused consternation here in Guyana, because Luckhoo had explained that Gilkes and the other team members had agreed unanimously with the decision that the Guyana team should withdraw.
In the heat of the direct affront by Gilkes, the Guyana Olympic Association was considering black-listing him internationally and he was given one week to explain why he went against the decision.
When Guyana announced its boycott, the Guyana Chronicle headline read: 'Guyana out of Olympics; joins Africans walk-out', and the first paragraph read: "As a mark of its deep commitment to the cause of liberating the oppressed peoples of Southern Africa from the yoke of racial minority domination, Guyana has decided to withdraw its national team from the 1976 Olympics."
Two weeks before the start of the Summer games the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) passed a resolution in Mauritius which called for Africa's non-participation in the games if New Zealand was allowed to take part. The OAU foreign ministers had condemned New Zealand for allowing the All Blacks Rugby Team to tour South Africa.
The Guyanese team had stayed in the games until the last minute, in the hope that better and principled judgement would prevail and New Zealand would be debarred from participating, but this never materialised.
The then Information and Culture Minister with responsibility for sport, the late Shirley Field-Ridley, had said the decision for the withdrawal was taken by the team's officials. She was reported as saying the team had been in touch with her on the position. "This morning they had told me that they had withdrawn."
The team's decision she had said, accorded with the then government's stand on apartheid because they had taken a firm stand on the position and would continue to do so.
Luckhoo was quoted as saying "we are withdrawing from the games because of our total opposition to apartheid. It is no use giving lip service… We cannot compromise on the question of principle."
When Luckhoo was asked if the decision was made by the team officials in Montreal or the then prime minister Forbes Burnham, Luckhoo had told Reuters "Prime Minister Forbes Burnham has been clear in public statements on the issue. It is nothing new. The government has not twisted our arms. We made the decision here."
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had also threatened to call off the games if the dispute between Canada and Taiwan was not settled. The IOC and world spos federations had condemned Canada for its refusal to allow Taiwan athletes into the country to compete in the games under the name of the Republic of China.
The boycott was organised by Jean Claude Ganga (General Secretary of the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa.
The team was given a steel band welcome on return to the Timehri Airport.