Obadele “Oba” Thompson was born in Barbados. His father, Dr. Alvin Thompson, hails from Guyana and was a history professor at the University of the West Indies. His mother, Hilda Thompson, is Bermudan and worked as a nurse. In college, Alvin was the 1963 100-yard dash champ. “As long as I have been growing the legend of my father as a sprinter has been growing. Each year, a chapter is added to the story,” Obadele quipped to World Athletics in 2000.
Despite his dad’s proven success on the track, running wasn’t the only sport Obadele fell in love with. In a 2022 appearance on “Let’s Talk with Dr. Greg,” he revealed that he played cricket, table tennis, and basketball during primary and secondary school. But while attending secondary school at Harrison College, the athlete discovered that he had inherited his dad’s natural speed.
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One of Obadele’s first major victories on the track came when he won the 100m in the under-17 age division at the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) Games in April 1991. This is when his father realized that the talent Obadele possessed was truly something special. “I was mowing the lawn, and my daughter ran out to me and shouted, ‘Daddy, daddy Oba won the 100m,’ and I said, ‘Don’t tell me this,’ because as you know it was All Fools Day,” Alvin recalled to Kaieteur News. “But then she said, ‘No, he won indeed,’ and it was a revelation.”
