Bri­an Lewis

We as Trin­bag­o­ni­ans don't un­der­stand and ap­pre­ci­ate the pow­er of Car­ni­val, and sport. Our Car­ni­val his­to­ry, tra­di­tions and her­itage make Trinidad and To­ba­go Car­ni­val unique and au­then­tic.

The long­time brass melody that Machel Mon­tano used in his run­away smash hit Like Ah Boss mar­ries the old and the new in an in­fec­tious Car­ni­val 2015 so­ca smash hit.

It is a pow­er­ful ex­am­ple of the pos­i­tive re­sults that can oc­cur with the mar­riage be­tween the tra­di­tion­al and con­tem­po­rary. The old need not be dis­card­ed and can be rel­e­vant to con­tem­po­rary Trinidad and To­ba­go so­ci­ety.

Trinidad and To­ba­go Car­ni­val as I un­der­stood it grow­ing up in Bel­mont–or Free­town–for those with a his­tor­i­cal ref­er­ence point has deep his­tor­i­cal and cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance.

Pri­or to eman­ci­pa­tion slaves were for­bid­den from par­tic­i­pat­ing in car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions. When slav­ery came to an end, the lib­er­at­ed slaves took their mas to the streets to cel­e­brate their free­dom. Car­ni­val was used to make sub­tle and not so sub­tle state­ments. So there was an el­e­ment of cul­tur­al and artis­tic ten­sion be­tween the bour­geoisie–the word now used in the con­tem­po­rary Trinidad and To­ba­go is stoosh–and the grass­roots.

Car­ni­val is in dan­ger of be­com­ing a means to an end and the di­vide grows be­tween the tra­di­tion­al and pret­ty mas, the cul­tur­al en­tre­pre­neurs and the prof­it seek­ers.

The chal­lenge we face is em­brac­ing the ten­sion be­tween tra­di­tion and con­tem­po­rary. In the sport space the coun­try is fac­ing the very same is­sues and chal­lenges.

That we don't seem to be able to har­ness the di­verse en­er­gies is part of our learn­ing and evo­lu­tion as a peo­ple, na­tion and so­ci­ety.

Peo­ple get de­fen­sive and take things per­son­al when you ask the ques­tions that need to be asked.

One such ques­tion is why must our elite ath­letes leave home dur­ing Car­ni­val so as not to neg­a­tive­ly im­pact their train­ing pro­gramme?

To­day I will walk around Port-of-Spain and take in the cel­e­bra­tions. Last year I was out of the coun­try at the Michael John­son Per­for­mance Cen­tre to fi­nalise as­pects of their high per­for­mance part­ner­ship with the Trinidad and To­ba­go Olympic Com­mit­tee. It was my in­ten­tion this year to make up and play mas.

But that was be­fore the 10 Olympic or more Olympic gold medals by 2024 #10golds24 cam­paign got go­ing in earnest.

The op­por­tu­ni­ty to pro­mote #10golds24 dur­ing car­ni­val is one that I will em­brace. Trinidad and To­ba­go is a world class cen­tre for Car­ni­val. #10golds24 mis­sion is for Trinidad and To­ba­go to be­come a world class cen­tre for Olympic sports.

Like Car­ni­val and the re­spec­tive Car­ni­val monarch win­ners. The ath­letes may be on the front line but achiev­ing Olympic suc­cess is very much a team ef­fort.

Each ath­lete or team is sup­port­ed by a mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary team.

Prepar­ing takes many years and plan­ning and it's the at­ten­tion to de­tail that pro­duces the ex­cel­lence and puts our ath­letes and teams in a po­si­tion to com­pete for Olympic medals.

Olympic sports are a peo­ple busi­ness and the re­la­tion­ships are im­por­tant. In a frac­tion of sec­ond re­sults are de­ter­mined. Every­one is un­der pres­sure.

There is a lot of adren­a­lin flow­ing. Keep­ing a cool head is vi­tal when the heat is on.

There is an army of peo­ple who work be­hind the scenes to pro­duce the mo­ment when our ath­letes and teams mount the podi­um.

Sport is no dif­fer­ent to Trinidad and To­ba­go Car­ni­val. We have world class tal­ent and po­ten­tial. Like Car­ni­val sport can put Trinidad and To­ba­go on the world map in a pos­i­tive way.

Sup­port the Olympic dream. Make your do­na­tions to the #10golds24 Ath­lete Wel­fare and Prepa­ra­tion Fund at any branch of Sco­tia Bank Ac# 171188.

ED­I­TOR'S NOTE: Bri­an Lewis is the Pres­i­dent of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) and the views ex­pressed are not those of the or­gan­i­sa­tion.