Sport is first and foremost about people and until a pathway is put in place for athletes, countries like Barbados will never enjoy success at the highest level.
That was the message delivered by Michael Romany, president of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee, during his feature address at the Barbados Olympic Association’s awards ceremony last Friday night at Hilton Barbados.
Romany, who has more than 25 years in sport and sports administration, said a podium performance at the Olympic Games was the measure of success for most countries, but when you were dealing with human beings, it was not that simple.
He pointed out that Trinidad and Tobago had projected five medals – possibly seven – from the London 2012 Olympic Games. They won four medals, but two of them were not projected and they did not come in the areas they had expected.
Track and field, with national participation of 1 700, was the most successful sport in that country, Romany said. They have won medals at every Olympics since 1996 in athletics.
He said that roughly 300 000 play football but Trinidad and Tobago was not reaping international success in that sport.
Romany said success had to be planned, with a clear system linking primary school sport to the secondary level and secondary to the club, national and international. There was also the very important phase of managing those at the collegiate level.
“If you don’t address that gap with some level of planning, then you cannot and will not end up with success at the top,” he noted.
Romany said instead of starting at the top, primary schools must have a Physical Education (PE) programme run by PE teachers, and not by teachers who teach PE. Children must participate for fun and not for medals.
“If you stand up and watch young people play sport on an open field, you would see everything is about having fun. The minute you take it and make it about competition and make it about results, everything falls apart,” he said to applause.
He said none of the Caribbean countries knew how to develop elite athletes and sport tended to be treated like mango or plum season, something you pay attention to for three months a year; but in order to reap success, there must be year-long activity.
Sustainability was also key to the development of sport, and Romany said participation, access to the highest level of competition and a pathway that connected them all would bring success. (SAT)
