For the CARIFTA swimming meet, please see: CARIFTA Swimming Championships.

The CARIFTA Games is an annual athletics competition founded by the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA). The games was first held in 1972 and consists of track and field events including sprint races, hurdles, middle distance track events, jumping and throwing events, and relays. The Games has two age categories: under-17 and under-20. Only countries associated with CARIFTA may compete in the competition.

In 1972, Austin Sealy, then president of the Amateur Athletic Association of Barbados, inaugurated the CARIFTA Games to mark the transition from the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). CARIFTA was meant to enhance relations between the English-speaking countries of the Caribbean after the dissolution of the West Indies Federation, but the CARIFTA Games took that idea a step further, including the French and Dutch Antilles in an annual junior track and field championship meet.

The Honourable Usain St. Leo Bolt, OJ, C.D. ( /ˈjuːseɪn/; born 21 August 1986), is a Jamaican sprinter and a five-time World and three-time Olympic gold medalist. He is the world record and Olympic record holder in the 100 metres, the 200 metres and (along with his teammates) the 4×100 metres relay. He is the reigning Olympic champion in these three events, and is one of only seven athletes (along with Valerie Adams, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Jacques Freitag, Yelena Isinbayeva, Jana Pittman, Dani Samuels) to win world championships at the youth, junior, and senior level of an athletic event.

Bolt won a 200 m gold medal at the 2002 World Junior Championships, making him the competition's youngest-ever gold medalist at the time (since surpassed by Jacko Gill). In 2004, at the CARIFTA Games, he became the first junior sprinter to run the 200 m in less than 20 seconds with a time of 19.93 s, breaking the previous world junior record held by Roy Martin by two-tenths of a second. He turned professional in 2004, and although he competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics, he missed most of the next two seasons due to injuries. In 2007, he broke Don Quarrie's 200 m Jamaican record with a run of 19.75 s.

Yohan Blake (born December 26, 1989) is a Jamaican sprinter and the current 100 metre World Champion. He holds the national junior record for the 100 metres, and is the youngest sprinter to have broken the 10-second barrier (at 19 years, 196 days). Blake's personal best of 9.82 seconds makes him the fourth fastest Jamaican runner, after Nesta Carter, Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt. His fastest run under any conditions is 9.80 seconds in May 2011 in Kingston, but the wind assistance (+2.2 m/s) was over the legal limit. He is coached by Glen Mills, and is training partners with Bolt and Daniel Bailey. On September 16, 2011 in Brussels, Belgium, he won in a time of 19.26 seconds, the second fastest 200 m ever.

Born in St. James, Jamaica, Blake is the son of Veda and Shirley Blake. He attended St. Jago High School in Spanish Town.

Blake set the fastest time by a Jamaican junior sprinter over 100 m with 10.11 seconds. The record was set at the 2007 CARIFTA Games held in the Turks and Caicos islands where he also led his team to gold in the 4 × 100 metres relay. At this occasion, he was awarded the Austin Sealy Trophy for the most outstanding athlete of the 2007 CARIFTA Games.

Alia Shanee Atkinson (born December 11, 1988) is a Jamaican swimmer and Olympian.

She competed at the 2004 Olympics, and four years later in the 2008 Olympics she finished 25th in the Women's 200 breaststroke.

She carried the flag for her native country at the opening ceremony of the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she set the Jamaican Record in the 100 fly; and the 2006 Commonwealth Games. She also competed in the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

She placed first in the 200 Breaststroke at the 2010 NCAA Championships, swimming for Texas A&M.