Bri­an Lewis

The dic­tio­nary de­fines ex­cel­lence as the qual­i­ty of be­ing out­stand­ing or ex­treme­ly good.The In­ter­na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee pro­motes re­spect, friend­ship and ex­cel­lence as core val­ues of the Olympic Move­ment.Prop­a­gat­ing these val­ues is the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the Olympic move­ment led by the re­spec­tive Na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tees.

It's a dif­fi­cult role and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty giv­en the ever chang­ing land­scape that is con­tem­po­rary so­ci­ety. Pierre Cou­bertin- founder of the mod­ern Olympic move­ment ar­tic­u­lat­ed the fol­low­ing:

�2 Joy of ef­fort in sport and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty;

�2 Fair play;

�2 Re­spect for oth­ers

�2 Pur­suit of ex­cel­lence;

�2 Bal­ance be­tween body, will and mind.

How­ev­er for the ma­jor­i­ty of peo­ple in­clud­ing many Na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tees it is an Olympic medal prefer­ably gold that de­fines ex­cel­lence.What ex­act­ly is the pur­suit of ex­cel­lence?For some ex­cel­lence is not just about win­ning.Sport in­spires peo­ple in all walks of life to strive for ex­cel­lence.There are no short­cuts to ex­cel­lence.

Sup­port­ing the elite as­pi­ra­tions of those who as­pire to win medals is a top­ic that caus­es sig­nif­i­cant dis­cus­sions.Not every­one is of the view that elite lev­el ath­letes should be sup­port­ed.It may ran­kle some es­pe­cial­ly those of us who see the pow­er of sport mak­ing a dif­fer­ence on a dai­ly ba­sis.But it is im­por­tant to lis­ten to the ar­gu­ment made by those who don't sup­port sport.

It's a com­pli­cat­ed is­sue that is shaped by in­di­vid­ual ex­pe­ri­ence, up­bring­ing and per­cep­tions.That sport is giv­en spe­cial con­sid­er­a­tion is a source of re­sent­ment in some cir­cles.Those of us who ar­gue ve­he­ment­ly and pas­sion­ate­ly that the de­vel­op­ment of phys­i­cal skills and pos­i­tive mo­ti­va­tion that comes from suc­cess in team and in­di­vid­ual com­pe­ti­tion in­spire the de­sire to pur­sue ex­cel­lence must ac­cept that not every­one buys the par­ty line.

Sport at its best can help young peo­ple de­vel­op pos­i­tive men­tal, so­cial and psy­cho­log­i­cal skills.But it has to be ac­knowl­edged that when sport is used for neg­a­tive rea­sons it paints an ug­ly pic­ture.It is in this re­spect that na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions must be very con­scious of the need to main­tain the pos­i­tive im­age and at­trib­ut­es of sport.

In em­brac­ing the du­al­i­ty of our hu­man ex­pe­ri­ence we find the abil­i­ty to reach deep with­in our­selves and pro­duce what we choose to de­fine as ex­cel­lence.In help­ing young ath­letes to pur­sue ex­cel­lence we em­pha­size hope. En­cour­age pos­i­tiv­i­ty, set ex­pec­ta­tions and de­mand ac­count­abil­i­ty.If we are to in­spire cham­pi­ons it can't be at the ex­pense of the to­tal­i­ty of hu­man ex­pe­ri­ence.

Ex­cel­lence in many ways de­fines the ex­pe­ri­ence of sport and the Olympic Move­ment.As­pir­ing for ex­cel­lence in all that you do on and off the field is a wor­thy en­deav­our.Let's con­tin­ue to strive for ex­cel­lence in life through sport.But let's al­so em­brace the chal­lenge that sport isn't a cure all and that mak­ing the ar­gu­ment for sport re­quires giv­ing care­ful thought and con­sid­er­a­tion to dif­fer­ent views.

Sport ought not to be used as a bul­ly pul­pit.

�2 Bri­an Lewis is the pres­i­dent of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Olympic Com­mit­tee. The views ex­pressed are not nec­es­sar­i­ly those of the Olympic Com­mit­tee.