Bri­an Lewis

It's not who wins or los­es an elec­tion but how those in pow­er gov­ern. Na­tion­al Sport Or­gan­i­sa­tions (NSOs) are re­spon­si­ble for the gov­er­nance, de­vel­op­ment, ad­min­is­tra­tion of their sport and all else that goes with those man­dates.This in­cludes ad­vo­cat­ing for sport as a key pil­lar for the eco­nom­ic and so­cial de­vel­op­ment of T&T.

Politi­cians and de­ci­sion mak­ers seem con­flict­ed about giv­ing sport a seat at the ta­ble. I be­lieve that the pub­lic sup­ports the idea of a key role for sport in the na­tion­al, eco­nom­ic and so­cial de­vel­op­ment of T&T.Eco­nom­ic fac­tors un­der­pin the prob­lems fac­ing sport, how­ev­er, it is im­por­tant to change the con­ver­sa­tion in T&T about sport and move away from the su­per­fi­cial at­ti­tude and ap­proach.

The Min­istry of Sport and the Sport Com­pa­ny, guid­ed by Gov­ern­ment's pol­i­cy on sport will fa­cil­i­tate and pro­vide tax pay­er's funds sub­ject to the avail­abil­i­ty of funds from Min­istry of Fi­nance.NSOs that al­low their au­ton­o­my and au­thor­i­ty for their sport to be com­pro­mised on the ba­sis that they get Min­istry of Sport or the Sport Com­pa­ny fund­ing as a con­ve­nient ex­cuse must not be al­lowed to get away with this de­cep­tion.

The buck stops with the NSOs, not the Min­istry of Sport or the Sport Com­pa­ny. The on­go­ing re­al­i­ty of elite lev­el ath­letes both in­di­vid­ual and team sports hav­ing to par­tic­i­pate in in­ter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion and Olympic Qual­i­fiers woe­ful­ly un­der­pre­pared and un­der re­sourced is man­i­fest­ly un­fair on our in­di­vid­ual ath­letes and na­tion­al teams.

It is the stan­dard to roll out ag­gre­gate fi­nan­cial fig­ures to jus­ti­fy that fi­nan­cial sup­port has been giv­en.But that is just half the sto­ry. The grass­root re­al­i­ty of sport for those who have no po­lit­i­cal or oth­er agen­da is that sport in T&T has al­ways been a bat­tle; and don't imag­ine the strug­gle will ever get any eas­i­er.

Un­less po­lit­i­cal par­ties are pre­pared to com­mit from a pol­i­cy per­spec­tive to make sport a key pil­lar in their for­ward vi­sion for the coun­try, the sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment of sport and as­pi­ra­tions to achieve ten or more gold medals by the year 2024 will con­tin­ue to be a strug­gle.

In­ter­na­tion­al head­lines for the wrong rea­sons and the neg­a­tive im­pact on the coun­try's im­age. Prob­lems and trou­ble nev­er go away by de­nial. The un­com­fort­able truth is a stark fact of life. It takes re­al courage to search for the truth and to face the con­se­quences.

We con­tin­ue to send our na­tion­al ath­letes and na­tion­al teams to im­por­tant in­ter­na­tion­al and Con­ti­nen­tal events in­clud­ing Olympic qual­i­fiers, un­der­pre­pared. Those who hide be­hind their desks, pa­pers and pens and in­ef­fec­tive and short­sight­ed poli­cies and process­es, can con­tin­ue to do so but it's the ath­letes and na­tion­al teams that face the em­bar­rass­ment and hu­mil­i­a­tion.

Ap­pre­ci­ate and un­der­stand the dam­age to brand T&T and the im­por­tance of pro­tect­ing our coun­try's brand. We can't let oth­ers with vest­ed in­ter­est de­fine our brand. We have to de­fine it our­selves.Sport helps T&T mar­ket it­self in­ter­na­tion­al­ly. Trans­for­ma­tion of the sport sys­tem is a strate­gic pri­or­i­ty.Sport lead­ers are elect­ed by sport stake­hold­ers. The ul­ti­mate re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for their sport is the man­date of the NSOs.

NSOs in­clud­ing the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee must do what they were elect­ed to do, which is lead not hide be­hind the Min­istry of Sport and the Sport Com­pa­ny.

Sup­port #10 Golds24 Ath­lete Wel­fare and Prepa­ra­tion Fund. Make your do­na­tions to any branch of Sco­tia­bank ac­count num­ber 171188. Share the Olympic Dream.

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