Bri­an Lewis

The av­er­age per­son will tell you al­most any­thing can be done. There is an old say­ing; all big ideas meet with op­po­si­tion and all big things have been ac­com­plished by men and women who stuck to their big idea.To­mor­row, Rio 2016 will cel­e­brate one year to go to the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny of the first ever Olympic Games in South Amer­i­ca.

The Olympics is about set­ting big goals. Rio and Brazil had a dream to host an Olympic Games.The South Amer­i­can na­tion host­ed the 2007 Pan Am Games as a test of their ca­pa­bil­i­ties. They would have learned some valu­able lessons and used those lessons and ex­pe­ri­ences to in­form their win­ning bid.

In the face of some well-pub­li­cised is­sues in­clud­ing the aw­ful state of the lo­ca­tion for sail­ing, Rio is in a stepped up mode with one year to go.Their am­bi­tion to host a suc­cess­ful Olympic Games is up­on them.For na­tion­al Olympic com­mit­tees one year to go is al­so an im­por­tant mile­stone since there is an in­ten­si­ty and fo­cus that is el­e­vat­ed. The pres­sure starts to build.

With the in­creased fo­cus on Rio 2016, spon­sors wake up to the op­por­tu­ni­ty but in most cas­es the long-stand­ing part­ners be­come very rig­or­ous in en­sur­ing that their rights are ac­ti­vat­ed.One year to go to Rio. The re­al­i­sa­tion that the big mo­ment is on the hori­zon.Mar­ket­ing ef­forts start to mount.

Rio 2016 one year to go.

Re­ports sug­gest that about 500,000 vis­i­tors will trav­el to Rio next year. Air­lines will be stretched to the max. Find­ing ac­com­mo­da­tion is go­ing to be chal­leng­ing and with an Olympic pre­mi­um. The Rio Olympic Or­gan­is­ers have signed Airbnb.In re­spect of the com­mer­cial use of the Olympic prop­er­ties there are stan­dards, pro­tec­tion of the val­ue of the Olympic prop­er­ties.

The use of the Olympic prop­er­ties must be aligned with the Olympic val­ues. Any use of Olympic prop­er­ties that is per­ceived to de­val­ue the Olympic Move­ment, the Olympic Games, and that de­tract from the Olympic ideals will not be ap­proved.All rights to the Olympic sym­bol and oth­er Olympic prop­er­ties be­long ex­clu­sive­ly to the In­ter­na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee (IOC) and can on­ly be used with the ex­press pri­or writ­ten con­sent of the IOC.

It is im­por­tant for the pub­lic and cor­po­rate T&T to ap­pre­ci­ate that the role of part­ners in pro­mot­ing the Olympic Move­ment and the Olympic val­ues must not be un­der­es­ti­mat­ed.Olympic part­ners play a vi­tal role in com­mu­ni­cat­ing the Olympic sym­bol by spon­sor­ship ac­ti­va­tion not on­ly dur­ing the pe­ri­od of the Olympic Games, but 365 days a year.

Every­one as­so­ci­at­ed with the Olympic Games have big ideas and goals.The T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee and its ath­letes, coach­es, man­agers and ad­min­is­tra­tors and med­ical sup­port staff al­so have high as­pi­ra­tions. One year to go to Rio.One year to go is for some a wake up call, while for oth­ers it's sim­ply an­oth­er phase in a well struc­tured long term plan.

It is go­ing to be an ex­cit­ing but chal­leng­ing 365 days.

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.