Bri­an Lewis

Ath­lete wel­fare and prepa­ra­tion is a key pri­or­i­ty of the ten or more Olympic gold medals by the year 2024 vi­sion (#10G24). In this re­spect, ac­cess to Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) hous­es is an idea that can be ad­vanced un­der an Elite Ath­lete Hous­ing As­sis­tance Pro­gramme. Rep­re­sent­ing T&T at the Olympic and World lev­el is na­tion­al du­ty and ser­vice. It is a de­c­la­ra­tion that should be mean­ing­ful with tan­gi­ble mea­sures put in place to sup­port such a de­c­la­ra­tion.

HDC hous­es for na­tion­al sports­men and women with a pri­or­i­ty on those who have rep­re­sent­ed T&T at Olympic and World lev­el in both team and in­di­vid­ual sports is in the opin­ion of the writer a pow­er­ful state­ment of in­tent that we are se­ri­ous about sup­port­ing our ath­letes in their quest for ex­cel­lence.

There are na­tion­al ath­letes who have served this coun­try with dis­tinc­tion for five years or more who need as­sis­tance to ob­tain HDC hous­ing.

Just as there is a pri­or­i­ty giv­en to mem­bers of the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty ser­vice, it is pro­posed that a sim­i­lar pol­i­cy be im­ple­ment­ed for na­tion­al sports men and women who have giv­en sus­tained and mer­i­to­ri­ous ser­vice.

Just as is done with the Elite Ath­lete As­sis­tance Pro­gramme, the na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions and the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) are well po­si­tioned to clar­i­fy, con­firm and rec­om­mend those ath­letes in both team and in­di­vid­ual sports that mer­it favourable con­sid­er­a­tion un­der the pro­posed Elite/High Per­for­mance Ath­lete Hous­ing As­sis­tance Pro­gramme.

My one caveat is that the cri­te­ria be trans­par­ent, fair and just and that it not be based on af­fil­i­a­tion to any po­lit­i­cal par­ty. Ath­letes, sports­men and women, should not have to hold any par­tic­u­lar par­ty card or de­clared sup­port.

Let me make it abun­dant­ly clear that hav­ing ben­e­fit­ed from an ex­pe­dit­ed dis­tri­b­u­tion, the re­cip­i­ent (ath­lete) must ho­n­our their mort­gage oblig­a­tions. At a much el­e­vat­ed lev­el of achieve­ment –an Olympic or World cham­pi­onship gold medal–the prece­dent has de­vel­oped where a gift of ap­pro­pri­ate hous­ing may be giv­en.

The idea of hous­es for na­tion­al ath­letes, sports­men and women is sim­ple, ath­letes who ded­i­cate years of their pro­duc­tive life to rep­re­sent­ing their coun­try at Olympic and World lev­el sport make tremen­dous sac­ri­fices in re­spect of their ca­reers, fam­i­lies, in­come etc.

Their choice to ded­i­cate them­selves to na­tion­al du­ty and ser­vice through sport os­ten­si­bly place them at a sig­nif­i­cant so­cial and eco­nom­ic dis­ad­van­tage.

Cur­rent­ly, the bur­den is a de-mo­ti­vat­ing one for ath­letes who as­pire to Olympic and World lev­el.

Ded­i­ca­tion to na­tion­al du­ty and ser­vice through sport must no longer place our ath­letes at a dis­ad­van­tage and com­pro­mise their con­sti­tu­tion­al and hu­man right to the dig­ni­ty of a roof over their heads.

Oth­er is­sues im­pact­ing sport in­clude:

�2 High crime and traf­fic. Both have made par­tic­i­pat­ing in sport and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty dif­fi­cult. There is a press­ing need to de­cen­tral­ize sport to the re­spec­tive com­mu­ni­ties.

�2 There are na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions de­pen­dent on fund­ing from the Min­istry of Sport and the Sport Com­pa­ny of T&T that haven't met their month­ly salary oblig­a­tion to their of­fice staff.

�2 Those in­volved in sport are con­cerned about the fu­ture of this coun­try and their fam­i­ly. The young peo­ple are con­cerned about well-pay­ing jobs, first world in­fra­struc­tur­al de­vel­op­ment which will en­sure them and their fam­i­lies a high qual­i­ty of life.

Young peo­ple in­volved in sports aren't any dif­fer­ent. They have the ad­di­tion­al wor­ry about their fu­ture in sport and the fu­ture of sport in the coun­try. The in­dif­fer­ence shown to the needs and con­cerns of sports­men and women is a de­mean­ing ex­pe­ri­ence that brings in­to ques­tion the sin­cer­i­ty of ut­ter­ances that sport is im­por­tant.

Ac­tion mat­ters more than talk.

Bri­an Lewis is the pres­i­dent of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC). The views ex­pressed are not nec­es­sar­i­ly those of the na­tion­al Olympic com­mit­tee.