Spearheaded by Brian Lewis, president of the T&T Olympic Committee (TTOC), the quest begins for ten or more Olympic gold medals by 2024. The strategic plan, launched in May, 2013, under the title #10golds24, sets performance targets for sports men and women that can be accomplished only with new and innovative approaches to the various sporting disciplines showcased at the Olympics.
Today the eyes of the world will be on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the start of South America's first Olympic Games. Although the build-up to Rio 2016 has been plagued by political, economic and health crises, the hope is that those challenges will be put aside for the opening ceremony as thousands of athletes from across the world march into the Maracana Stadium for an event that will climax with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron.
For Team T&T, the countdown to Rio has not been without controversy. It overshadowed the selection of the first gymnast to represent this country at the Olympics and all indicators are that Marisa Dick, a Canadian born of a Trinidadian mother, will not be enjoying much national support when she competes in Rio because of questions over how she was awarded the spot many believe had been earned by Thema Williams.
But that sour note should not be allowed to taint the efforts that will be made over the next two weeks by T&T's athletes to increase the country's gold medal count.
Spearheaded by Brian Lewis, president of the T&T Olympic Committee (TTOC), the quest begins for ten or more Olympic gold medals by 2024. The strategic plan, launched in May, 2013, under the title #10golds24, sets performance targets for sports men and women that can be accomplished only with new and innovative approaches to the various sporting disciplines showcased at the Olympics.
For this, the country's 17th appearance at the Summer Olympics, the expectation is that top placings in various events will see additions to the current medal count of 18, improving on the national average of 0.9 medals for each Olympic games.
Although T&T athletes have been participating in the Olympics since 1948, the country's first real success did not come until the games of the XVIII Olympiad in 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. That was the year Edwin Roberts won bronze in the 200m in 20.3 seconds, the men's relay team also won bronze and Wendell Mottley won silver for the 400m in 45.2 seconds.
However, the most iconic moment for T&T was in 1976 at the Montreal Games when Hasely Crawford won gold in the 100m sprint in a time of 10.06 seconds, beating Jamaica's Donald Quarrie.
While other medals were won in subsequent Olympics, gold eluded T&T until the London Games in 2012 when 19-year-old Keshorn Walcott won the precious metal in the javelin event.
In the years between, there was 1996 in Atlanta when Ato Boldon won bronze medals in the 100 and 200m events, following up that achievement in 2000 in Sydney with a silver medal in the 100m and bronze in the 200m.
At the Beijing Games in 2008, Richard Thompson won a silver medal in the 100m, then teamed up with Marc Burns, Emmanuel Callender and Keston Bledman to take silver in the 4 x 100m relay. In 2012, in addition to Walcott's gold medal, there was a bronze medal performance from the 4 x 100m relay team of Emmanuel Callender, Marc Burns, Keston Bledman and Richard Thompson, as well as 400m bronze for Lalonde Gordon) and 4 x 400m relay bronze, with Gordon, Jarrin Solomon, Ade Alleyne-Forte and Deon Lendore.
This year, expectations are high with a T&T team that includes reigning Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott and bronze medalists Lalonde Gordon, Machel Cedenio, Jarrin Solomon and Renny Quow. Let the games begin!
