Wendell Mottley

Wendell Mottley (born July 2, 1941 in Port of Spain , Trinidad ) is a former sprinter , Olympic participant, but also politician , minister and institute founder from Trinidad and Tobago .

His sporting career began as early as 1958 when he ran the 100 yards in the group of 17-year-olds at Queen's Royal College Sports in an absolute record time of 10.1 seconds. In 1959, he won the 100, 220, 440 and 880 yards at the same sporting event. In 1960 he went to Yale University in the United States to study economics. In 1964 he set new indoor world records over 400, 550 and 600 yards. The successful indoor season earned him a place on the Olympic team.

At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, he won the silver medal in the 400-meter run , behind the American Mike Larrabee (gold) and ahead of the Pole Andrzej Badeński (bronze) as well as the team bronze medal, together with his teammate Edwin Skinner , Kent Bernard and Edwin Roberts , behind the teams from the USA (gold) and the United Kingdom (silver). At the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Kingston in 1966 , he won the gold medal in the 440-yard run in front of his compatriot Kenneth Bernard (silver) and the Canadian Don Domansky (bronze). He also won gold in the 4x440-yard relay, ahead of the teams from Canada (silver) and England (bronze).

Mottley is a politician and was, among other things, Minister of Finance in Trinidad and Tobago between 1991 and 1995 and successfully carried out major economic reforms during this time. He had previously worked as Minister for Trade and Industry and as Minister for Construction. Mottley later served as a senior advisor to Credit Suisse Group , where he specialized in financing energy-related projects. Mottley is also the founder of the Caribbean Research Institute in Trinidad and Tobago and the Citizens Alliance political Party , a smaller political party.

Web links

• Wendell Mottley in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Portrait (English)