Bri­an Lewis

Since my elec­tion to the post of pres­i­dent of the Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC), it has been a whirl­wind of ac­tiv­i­ty with no hon­ey­moon pe­ri­od. The stan­dard ques­tion I am asked is: "How has it been?" Truth be told it has gone very well in­deed.

I have ben­e­fit­ed no end from the guid­ance and ex­am­ple of past pres­i­dents such as Alexan­der Chap­man, Dou­glas Ca­ma­cho and Lar­ry Ro­many and the men­tor­ing of for­mer TTOC sec­re­tary gen­er­al Sen­a­tor El­ton Prescott.

Since 1946 a sig­nif­i­cant amount of time and en­er­gy has gone in­to build­ing the Olympic Com­mit­tee in­to a well-es­tab­lished and re­spect­ed sport or­gan­i­sa­tion with an im­pec­ca­ble rep­u­ta­tion.

That it has been done on a vol­un­teer and un­paid ba­sis is to the eter­nal cred­it of all who would have made their con­tri­bu­tion of time, en­er­gy, pas­sion, ex­pe­ri­ence, knowl­edge and skill.

As the TTOC fo­cus­es on the up­com­ing qua­dren­ni­al there are new chal­lenges and op­por­tu­ni­ties. Some of the is­sues fac­ing the TTOC are old ones, some will be new and some haven't as yet been en­vis­aged.

But what re­mains through it all are the Olympic val­ues, ideals and spir­it and the prin­ci­ples of Olymp­ism.

Each pres­i­dent may have their own style and way of see­ing and do­ing things but the prin­ci­ples of Olymp­ism must re­main at the cen­tre of it all.

In many ways it's a bal­anc­ing act to keep up with the times in or­der to car­ry out the mis­sion and vi­sion of Baron Pierre de Cou­bertin.

Ac­cord­ing to the Olympic Char­ter: "The goal of Olymp­ism is to place sport at the ser­vice of the har­mo­nious de­vel­op­ment of mankind every­where. With a view to en­cour­ag­ing the es­tab­lish­ment of a peace­ful so­ci­ety con­cerned with the preser­va­tion of hu­man dig­ni­ty."

The TTOC has al­ways pro­mot­ed Olympic val­ues. What the TTOC has achieved to date pro­vides the or­gan­i­sa­tion with the strength and con­fi­dence to reach high­er.

It can be prob­lem­at­ic pro­mot­ing high per­for­mance sport and sport for all as there are ob­vi­ous and not so ob­vi­ous con­tra­dic­tions that on the sur­face ap­pear dif­fi­cult to rec­on­cile.

The fo­cus of elite and high per­for­mance sport is to achieve the win­ning edge, while sport for all is about the en­joy­ment of par­tic­i­pat­ing in sport and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty.

To most peo­ple elite sport is as­so­ci­at­ed, in­creas­ing­ly, these days with dop­ing, il­le­gal bet­ting, match fix­ing etc.

As win at all cost seems to be the on­ly ob­jec­tive as against the stat­ed in­ten­tion of sport for all.

It is a chal­lenge but not an in­sur­mount­able one. Striv­ing for ex­cel­lence, re­spect, hon­esty, fair play and friend­ship are val­ues that re­main con­stant at both ends of the sport con­tin­u­um–Elite and Sport for all.

Re­cent­ly, I made the pub­lic pro­nounce­ment that a na­tion­al ob­jec­tive for Olympic sports of ten gold medals by the year 2024 should be set.

This cov­ers the Rio 2016, 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games.

The im­pres­sion in some quar­ters seemed to be that I was stat­ing that the TTOC should place an em­pha­sis on elite sport and the win­ning of medals.

For the avoid­ance of doubt, I am stat­ing that we must set mea­sure­able and high goals in re­spect of the elite/high per­for­mance caul­dron of Olympic sport.

What I am not say­ing is that it is or should be at the ex­pense of sport for all and the prin­ci­ples of Olymp­ism, the Olympic ideals, val­ues and spir­it.

The chal­lenge of bal­anc­ing the two–elite/high per­for­mance and the pro­mo­tion of Olymp­ism through sport for all is there to be met.

n Bri­an Lewis is the pres­i­dent of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee.

Vis­it http/: www.ttoc.org for in­for­ma­tion on the TTOC and Olymp­ism.

?