T&T Olympic Games bronze medal swimmer (2004 Athens), and former world record holder, George Bovell III says he is honoured to have been inducted to the First Citizens Sports Foundation Hall of Fame.
The 36-year-old Bovell, who now resides in Canada following his retirement from the sport almost four years ago was inducted on Sunday, April 11, along with former outstanding T&T athletes Claude Noel (boxing), and Cheryl Ann Sankar (taekwondo), Dexter St Louis (table tennis/posthumous) as well as coaches Bertille St Clair (football), Lester Osouna (athletics), cricket umpire Ralph Gosein (posthumous) and administrators Rev Dr Iva Gloudon, David Farrell, and sports journalist Dave Lamy (posthumous).
Over his outstanding swimming career which spanned almost more than 20 years, Bovell represented T&T at 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 Olympics.
At the 2004 Olympics, he won a bronze medal in the men's 200 IM, the ninth medalist in the country's history and 12th medal overall.
It was also the first-ever Olympic swimming medal for the country and T&T's only medal from the 2004 Olympics.
Bovell also made it to the finals of the 50m Freestyle in London where he placed seventh in the fastest field ever assembled after returning from a forced hiatus due to a brain injury earlier in the season.
He was T&T's flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the 20th Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Cartagena, Colombia and in the closing ceremonies of 2000, 2004 and 2012 Olympic Games.
At FINA World Championships events, Bovell won the bronze in 2013 in the 50m Long Course freestyle final in (21.51 seconds) at Barcelona against the fastest field ever assembled in the sport, one in which every competitor in the final was an Olympic medalist.
A year earlier he also secured bronze in the 100m individual medley at the World Short Course Championships in Istanbul, a testament to his versatility.
Overall, he has been in ten World Championship finals since his first in 2001 and has won six Pan American Games medals (two gold, two silver and two bronze) along with eight CAC Games medals (three gold, two silver and three bronze), both over three editions of the events.
Bovell who was second overall on the 2012 FINA World Cup medals list with 16 (seven gold and nine silver) and a five-time NCAA individual champion said it’s a great honour to be inducted into our national sporting Hall of Fame said, "I was in Coimbatore, South India, studying Ayurveda, when they told me about it, and had planned to return to the jungle in Peru for a few weeks to learn more about traditional Amazonian medicine. But even if he wasn't in Canada, Bovell who has changed his focus away from the sport admitted that returning home for the ceremony was not amongst his plans, even though it may be considered a major achievement."
He said, "I will be honest here, returning home to attend the event was initially not a big priority for me. You see, I had already closed that chapter of my life back in Rio after my last Olympic race."
The holder of most All-American Honours in Auburn University History with 25, Bovell said his swimming career was not an easy one as it may have seemed to those on the outside, looking in.
The four-time NCAA Team champion admitted, "You may think it was glamorous, but looking back, my swimming career was like a harsh form of “mental and physical slavery” as I suffered a lot."
" It was a lonely feat of endurance, and a constant uphill struggle full of heart-breaking sacrifice and fanatical dedication.
"However, as difficult as it was, it was ultimately necessary on my path to self-mastery.
The eight-time SEC champion was quick to point out that despite the struggles he also learnt a lot of life lessons during his swimming career.
"It taught me to lose without being defeated and to win without pride. Full commitment through many increasingly extreme challenges eventually rewarded me with control over my body, and more importantly, my mind. Now, I control myself inside, so Instead of simply reacting to what's happening externally, I consciously respond intentionally."
He added, "My father helped me to see that my attendance at the induction was not about me, but was for the people who helped me along my way, and for those who will aspire to follow in my footsteps."
