Cleopatra Borel, recipient of the T&T Olympic Committee's (TTOC) Sportswoman of the Year Award, has validated the ambitions of the organisation's president Brian Lewis to have this country win ten Olympic gold medals by 2024.
Delivering the feature address at Monday's TTOC Awards held at the NAPA, Borel said T&T has won two gold medals and in order to win an additional eight in less than ten years, there would need to be drastic changes.
"To reach our target, team T&T will have to win approximately 2.66 gold medals at the 2016, 2020, and 2024 Olympic Games. This is by no means an easy undertaking, but it is possible. Canada, Sweden, Belgium, Finland, Portugal, Greece and Argentina, are all established sporting nations, but each won less than two gold medals at the London Olympic Games. However, I still believe it is possible for team T&T to meet the challenge set by Mr Lewis," she said.
Borel added, "It's possible! Not easy, but possible. How can we compete against and perform better than countries that have bigger budgets, better facilities and larger populations that T&T. The answer is quite simple. We have to put our people first. Yes, honourable guest. The answer is simple, but not easy."
She said there needed to be a larger cadre of coaches and administrators, sport medicine personnel and support staff in place to meet the new target.
In her view, a joint effort between volunteers and full-time professionals in the administering training programmes designed to keep athletes injury free and provide other services athletes need to succeed were essential.
Further, she said, the time was right for coaching and other related fields necessary for athlete development, evolve into full time services locally.
"Our coaches have to recruit. Talent identification is key to this endeavour and every young Trinbagonian should be considered a potential medallist. Therefore, we must develop a sporting culture at an early age. The importance of physical education classes and after school sport clubs cannot be exaggerated. They contain our next generation of champions. In addition, we must encourage young girls to participate in sport and see it as a viable career path," said Borel.
She added, "As a young girl growing up in Mayaro, I was not afforded the opportunity to truly participate in track and field. It saddens me, when I speak to young people from rural areas and opportunities are still limited. T&T has produced many world class athletes from our rural areas, the time has come for us to maximise our talent nationwide."
In Borel's estimation, the next step was for this country to target events in which athletes could most definitely medal.
She said this was necessary because it was quite challenging for any country to sponsor athletes in all Olympic events.
Borel made it clear, she was not advocating for athletes to be denied, but called on administrators to be more practical and strategic when it came to recognising where the country's best chances to medal lay.
"Exposure of athletes to target events will be wise. More events can be added over time as the programme develops. Can we expect to see greater success if we focus on the areas where we are most talented?
"I believe it's possible. The fourth step is to provide the basic needs of our athletes: healthy food, clothing and shelter. Far too many of our athletes are unable to meet these basic needs. However, many choose to work and represent T&T," she said.
