PRIME?MINISTER Freundel Stuart has pledged to forge greater synergies among sporting bodies but acknowledged that local sportsmen and women haven’t lived up to expectations on the world stage.
“Ultimately, no matter how great the work you are doing, people relate to winning medals, and at the Olympic level, we have not been as sparkling in our performances as you would have wished, as your officials would have wished, certainly, as I would have wished, and certainly, as the people of Barbados would have wished,” Stuart said yesterday morning.
His remarks came after touring the Barbados Olympic Centre and meeting with some top sports administrators.
While Stuart lauded Steve Stoute, president of the Barbados Olympic Association (BOA), and his staff for the work they have been doing, he urged the officials not to slacken their efforts at encouraging young people to maximize their performances in Olympic sports.
Recommendations
Stuart said he was concerned that too many sportsmen and women stopped trying after they reached a certain age and promised when he met with officials of the Ministry of Sports to put forward recommendations for better synergies between the BOA and the National Sports Council.
“It is not going to satisfy Barbadians indefinitely that they can sit in front of their televisions and watch Jamaicans doing as well as they do at the Olympics, watch Grenada performing, watch Trinidad performing, [The] Bahamas performing but Barbados is always trying to play catch-up.”
Another area of concern was the “flash in the pan” mentality which was making heroes overnight.
“One of the big challenges we have had in Barbados – it is not limited to sport either – is that one-off performances are treated as occasions for coronation. You get a flash in the pan, a one-off performance and a red carpet is rolled out for the performances. He or she is crowned with laurels and becomes a hero overnight. There is nothing called overnight heroism,” Stuart said.
The Prime Minister said Barbados needed to foster an environment where an athlete ran the whole race, did it more than once and won more than once.
Endeavour
“Satisfying ourselves with mediocrity is not going to get Barbados anywhere. One-off performances are not going to get Barbados anywhere, whether we are talking about sport or any other sphere of human endeavour,” he added.
“What we want is consistent pursuit of the highest possible standard in our national life, and there is no better place to start than in the area of sport, which attracts people from the cradle to the grave and gives us a chance to build a national character.”
After a short meeting with Stoute and BOA secretary general Erskine Simmons, at which they discussed some of the challenges facing sport, Stuart was taken on a tour of the Olympic Museum by Dave Farmer, head of the Olympic Academy.
Later, he also met with BOA directors Esther Maynard, John Griffith and Cammie Burke.
After thanking Stuart, Stoute presented him with an official Barbados Olympic tie as well as an autographed copy of the book Seoul To Beijing, written by Jamaican Don Anderson.