Easily one of Jamaica’s most decorated female athletes, Veronica Campbell Brown has done it all in the black, green and gold colors of Jamaica like none before she has.
For whenever she dons those colors she’s transformed into a beast, as the 49 medals won on the international stage over 20 years, indicate.
She is an eight-time Olympic Games medalist (3 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze); an eight-time World Championships medalist (3 gold, 7 silver and 1 bronze); a five-time Commonwealth Games medalist (1 gold, four silver); a two-time World Indoor Championships gold medalist; a two-time Continental Cup gold medalist; a four-time World Athletics Final medalist (3 gold, 1 silver); a two-time World Relay Championships medalist (1 gold, 1 silver); a three-time World Junior Championships medalist (2 gold, 1 silver); a four-time CAC Junior Championships gold medalist and an eight-time Carifta Games medalist (6 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze).
As impressive as these numbers are, they can be bettered, but what will never-ever change is the fact that Campbell Brown, more popularly known as “VCB”, will always be the first Jamaican woman and the first woman from the Caribbean to win an Olympic Games sprint gold medal.
The Clarks Town, Trelawny native won the women’s 200m final at the 2004 Athens Olympics at the tender age of 22 years, clocking a smart 22.05 seconds. She had earlier won bronze in the 100m final and later teamed up with Aleen Bailey, Tanya Lawrence and Sherone Simpson to create another first in winning the 4x100m relays at the Olympics for the first time.
Four years earlier at just 18 years, the precocious VCB had tasted success to help Jamaica finish second behind The Bahamas in the 4x100m relay final as her promise as a potential superstar had begun to bear fruits.
The former Vere Technical High School standout had long displayed the results associated with the greats of the sport, having triumphed at every level of international competition.
Appointed a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador in 2009, Veronica Campbell Brown has been bestowed with the Commander of the Order of Distinction (CD), is a five-time Sportswoman of the Year in Jamaica and a recipient of the Courtney Walsh Awards for Excellence in 2012.
