Bri­an Lewis

Here we go again were the words that en­tered my mind. Comess blared the head­lines, and once again sport is aligned to bac­cha­nal! And it's con­nect­ed to the au­di­tor gen­er­al's re­port, this time the Sport and Cul­ture Fund re­port for the years 2005 and 2009.

What's par­tic­u­lar­ly galling about all of this is that na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions that are mak­ing her­culean ef­forts to an­swer the trans­paren­cy, ac­count­abil­i­ty and good gov­er­nance bell are ex­posed to the out­right hypocrisy and dou­ble stan­dards that seems so preva­lent at this time.

At every turn, in both the pri­vate and pub­lic sec­tor, any pro­pos­al for fund­ing sup­port is greet­ed with the re­quire­ment for au­dit­ed ac­counts as na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions are quite right­ly held to a high stan­dard.

Yet when the mark buss, the hypocrisy and dou­ble stan­dards are there for all to see.

Cor­rup­tion, poor gov­er­nance and dou­ble stan­dards are not val­ues that go hand in hand or that align with sport val­ues and the in­tegri­ty of sport.

Na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions that are se­ri­ous about their brand and main­tain­ing and pro­tect­ing their brand val­ues and in­tegri­ty, must stay away from as­so­ci­at­ing with com­pa­nies, en­ti­ties or or­gan­i­sa­tions that don't re­flect the val­ues of sport. They have to stand strong and say no.

The des­per­ate need for fund­ing shouldn't come at the price of brand in­tegri­ty or brand val­ues. It mat­ters not the quan­tum of mon­ey on of­fer. There are eth­i­cal, prin­ci­ple-based pri­vate and pub­lic com­pa­nies. Sport or­gan­i­sa­tions need to align with and seek out those part­ner­ships and al­liances.

It's frus­trat­ing for those who are try­ing to do things by eth­i­cal stan­dards to wit­ness those who show the will­ing­ness to turn a blind eye, pinch their nose and do any­thing for mon­ey or oth­er in­duce­ments, reap­ing the ben­e­fits.

Stake­hold­ers with­in sport need to be­come more vo­cal and ac­tivist ori­ent­ed about want­i­ng cor­rup­tion free sport.

Those who sin­cere­ly want to clean up the im­age of sport must say stop the hypocrisy and dou­ble stan­dards and ex­pose those who in­tend to hide their re­al mo­tive, which is to evade scruti­ny and hide be­hind claims of be­ing de­mo­c­ra­t­ic and trans­par­ent.

Strong ef­forts need to be made to pro­tect the good name and im­age of sport.

Comess, bac­cha­nal and cor­rup­tion aren't the val­ues of sport. Changes do not hap­pen overnight but will take time.

Cer­tain qual­i­ties are need­ed if we are to achieve ten Olympic Gold medals by the year 2024.

Num­ber one is at­ti­tude. You have to have a nev­er say die at­ti­tude. You have to have a no short­cuts at­ti­tude.

Then there is hon­esty: We have to ad­mit that we have to learn. Too many of us aren't will­ing to ad­mit that we don't know that we don't know.

We need to have a plan and work ac­cord­ing to that plan.

We have a big goal and that is to win gold medals. Suc­cess is not mea­sured on the des­ti­na­tion, it is not the end re­sult, and it is con­stant. You have a goal, and then you need to plan your path to achiev­ing that goal.

We need to have ath­letes who can deal with that kind of pres­sure that comes with striv­ing to be the best they pos­si­bly can be.

The ques­tion we must ask our­selves every time we do some­thing is will this make us bet­ter? If it doesn't make us bet­ter then we don't do it. If it does, we do it again and again and again.

Striv­ing to achieve a goal means that we are not at the mer­cy of the things that mat­ter the least.

We have to stay away from things that can dis­tract us.

Comess, bac­cha­nal, cor­rup­tion and poor un­de­mo­c­ra­t­ic gov­er­nance and gov­ern­ing are dis­trac­tions that if left to rule the roost will prove our un­do­ing.

We need a rest from the neg­a­tive head­lines when­ev­er sport is men­tioned.

Bri­an Lewis is pres­i­dent of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee. The views ex­pressed in this col­umn are not nec­es­sar­i­ly those of the T&TOC.