Je­lani Beck­les

The T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) will an­nounce to­mor­row if it will ac­cept the spot in the women's artis­tic gym­nas­tics com­pe­ti­tion at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, which runs from Au­gust 5-21.

The TTOC has a dead­line of May 9, but stat­ed a de­ci­sion will be made to­mor­row at a press con­fer­ence to be held at Olympic House on 121 Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain, from 10.30 am.

The press re­lease yes­ter­day stat­ed that the TTOC Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee planned to meet Fri­day and yes­ter­day to dis­cuss the mat­ter which has brought about in­tense na­tion­al de­bate and pub­lic in­ter­est.

The re­lease ex­plained, "The T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) Games Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee will meet on Fri­day 29th April and Sat­ur­day 30th April to con­sid­er the Na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee's re­sponse to the In­ter­na­tion­al Gym­nas­tics Fed­er­a­tion (FIG ) re the TTOC's ac­cep­tance or not of an al­lo­cat­ed place in the women's in­di­vid­ual artis­tic gym­nas­tics com­pe­ti­tion at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games."

Na­tion­al gym­nast The­ma Williams was con­tro­ver­sial­ly re­moved from the Olympic Games Test event in Rio on April 16 and re­placed by fel­low na­tion­al gym­nast Marisa Dick, who com­pet­ed in the Test event and be­came the first T&T gym­nast to qual­i­fy for the Olympics.

Williams was pulled out of the Rio Test Event as the T&T Gym­nas­tics Fed­er­a­tion felt she was not phys­i­cal­ly fit to com­pete fol­low­ing a re­port from Williams' coach John Ged­dert.

The bat­tle be­tween Williams and Dick has been go­ing on for a long time. Williams' par­tic­i­pa­tion at the Rio Test event was in doubt since she qual­i­fied for the event. Af­ter Williams fin­ished ahead of Dick in the World Gym­nas­tics Cham­pi­onships in Oc­to­ber, Williams be­lieves she should have been the au­to­mat­ic choice to rep­re­sent T&T at the Test event.

How­ev­er, the TTGF an­nounced that Williams and Dick will have to com­pete in two more events be­fore one is cho­sen. Af­ter de­lib­er­a­tion Williams was cho­sen for the Test event.

In Feb­ru­ary se­mi-nude pho­tographs of Williams and Dick cir­cu­lat­ed on so­cial me­dia which forced the TTGF to take the mat­ter to the Fed­er­a­tion's Dis­ci­pli­nary Com­mit­tee. Williams' at­ten­dance at the Test Event was then in doubt again, but af­ter con­sul­ta­tion the TTGF con­firmed last month that Williams will be T&T's rep­re­sen­ta­tive at the Rio Test event. Then on the eve of the Test event Williams was re­moved and re­placed by Dick.

On Fri­day, FIG stat­ed that on­ly Dick is el­i­gi­ble to com­pete at the Olympics for T&T. In the mean­time, Williams' lawyers head­ed by Kei­th Scot­land are weigh­ing their op­tions. They plan to take the mat­ter to the Tri­par­tite Olympic Com­mis­sion and then the Court of Ar­bi­tra­tion for Sport in an at­tempt to get their client to the Olympics.