Bri­an Lewis

Ath­letes can't be com­pet­i­tive in elite sport with­out some form of fi­nan­cial sup­port.

Even though many ath­letes in T&T are am­a­teur in that they don't earn a liv­ing from their sport, their am­bi­tion to achieve ex­cel­lence in their sport de­mands supreme ef­fort.

The net re­sult is train­ing is full time. In fact it's not on­ly the ath­letes. Coach­es, ad­min­is­tra­tors and of­fi­cials at the high­est lev­els of com­pe­ti­tion are es­sen­tial­ly full time.

Be­ing pro­fes­sion­al in your ap­proach to the var­i­ous roles and re­spon­si­bil­i­ties is a re­quire­ment. Tak­ing ex­tend­ed leave from work in or­der to pre­pare for ma­jor com­pe­ti­tions is more the rule than the ex­cep­tion.

I en­vis­age the day in T&T when elite lev­el ath­letes can carve out a ca­reer that pays the bills. Com­mer­cial op­por­tu­ni­ties will in­creas­ing­ly be­come a re­al­i­ty. Our most tal­ent­ed ath­letes re­ceive ex­ten­sive me­dia cov­er­age and will gen­er­ate in­come both on and off the field.

It's im­por­tant to pre­pare our ath­letes for the bright lights. There will al­ways be ad­di­tion­al stress­es. Cop­ing and learn­ing how to cope is im­por­tant. Man­ag­ing their time and en­er­gy and bal­anc­ing the de­mands is go­ing to be a high de­mand skillset.

Spon­sors as will­ing as they may be, will still want to en­sure their brand is looked af­ter.

At­tend­ing func­tions and meet and greet aren't an im­ped­i­ment to meet­ing per­for­mance tar­gets but a rea­son­able con­trac­tu­al oblig­a­tion. Code of con­duct claus­es will im­pose cer­tain du­ties.

Man­ag­ing the con­flict­ing de­mands isn't for the faint heart­ed or clue­less. Each stake­hold­er has a cru­cial role to play.

Sport in T&T is burst­ing at its seams.

At the Olympic Games the in­ter­est and pres­sure to per­form is tremen­dous. The IOC has its own world wide spon­sors who pay for ex­clu­sive rights to the Games em­blems. Each Na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee has its own spon­sors who pay for their prod­uct to be the Olympic team of­fi­cial part­ner.

Ath­letes al­so have their own spon­sors.

There is po­ten­tial for con­flict and man­ag­ing the con­flict re­quires huge reser­voirs of good­will. With just un­der one year to go to Rio de­ci­sions need to be made. There is no time to quib­ble or be in­de­ci­sive.

For our ath­letes there is too much at stake. Ath­lete-first and ath­lete-cen­tred­ness is not about be­ing pas­sive.

At the TTOC, ath­lete-first and ath­lete-cen­tred is who we are and what we do every sin­gle day. Rais­ing the bar in re­spect of ser­vice lev­els is plac­ing great de­mands on every­one. But meet­ing the ser­vice ex­pec­ta­tions is what the Olympic Com­mit­tee is about.

In or­der to meet the ex­pec­ta­tions of the ath­letes, clar­i­ty in re­spect of de­liv­ery of spe­cif­ic ser­vices are a high pri­or­i­ty. Sat­is­fy­ing ex­pec­ta­tions means hav­ing an in­te­grat­ed ap­proach to com­mu­ni­ca­tion and as­sess­ment of the im­pact of all com­mu­ni­ca­tions.

There are many who say they are ath­lete-cen­tred. Be­ing ath­lete-cen­tred is eas­i­er said. Ten or more Olympic gold medals by 2024 must be ath­lete cen­tred if the pro­gramme is not ath­lete cen­tred it will have a snow­ball's chance in hell of suc­ceed­ing.

Clos­ing the gap be­tween ex­pec­ta­tions and per­cep­tions where they ex­ist is im­por­tant. The TTOC is cur­rent­ly mak­ing ef­forts to un­der­stand what ath­letes ex­pect of the TTOC. Un­der­stand­ing their ex­pec­ta­tions means you can meet them.

Bri­an Lewis is the Pres­i­dent of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee. The views ex­pressed are not nec­es­sar­i­ly those of the Olympic Com­mit­tee. Sup­port #10 Golds24 Ath­lete Wel­fare and Prepa­ra­tion Fund make your do­na­tions to any branch of Sco­tia­bank ac­count num­ber 171188