It's cold in Li­ma, Pe­ru, the host city of the 18th Pan Am Games. In fact, it's win­ter here in the South Amer­i­can na­tion de­spite the or­gan­is­ers' best ef­forts to have the games in the Ju­ly/Au­gust win­dow that is the best op­tion for any mul­ti-sport event that hopes to at­tract the best track and field ath­letes from the Pan Amer­i­can re­gion.

The Pan Am Games is a ma­jor event on the cal­en­dar and it is al­ways well sup­port­ed by the 41 Pan Am Sport Or­gan­i­sa­tion mem­ber coun­tries. But if one is to be hon­est, the USA as an ex­am­ple may not send their ab­solute best track and field ath­letes. But for sure, with the 2019 IAAF World Ath­let­ics Cham­pi­onships in Do­ha, Qatar, from Sep­tem­ber 28 to Oc­to­ber 6, makes the Pan Am Games for many a must at­tend as part of their prepa­ra­tion for the glob­al chal­lenge that awaits them.

For a num­ber of oth­er sports, the Pan Am Games is a sig­nif­i­cant event. In­creas­ing­ly, the Pan Am Sport Or­gan­i­sa­tion is do­ing a good job get­ting recog­ni­tion as an Olympic qual­i­fi­er.

For coun­tries such as Trinidad and To­ba­go, the Pan Am Games are a se­ri­ous land­mark and step­ping stone in the Olympic cy­cle.

It pro­vides an ex­cel­lent op­por­tu­ni­ty to as­sess where we are at. One of the huge chal­lenges when you set a big goal such as 10 Olympic gold medals by 2024, is that sign­posts such as Pan Am Games can ei­ther build con­fi­dence or de­stroy it.

On es­tab­lish­ing the goal of 10 or more Olympic medals by 2024 a trans­par­ent score­board was cre­at­ed. There is no longer any place to hide. How are we go­ing about achiev­ing such a lofty goal? Do we have the re­sources? Are the sys­tems and poli­cies in place?

Giv­en Trinidad and To­ba­go's his­to­ry, why would such an ob­jec­tive be even con­sid­ered? It just doesn't make any sense.

In set­ting any goal you have to em­brace the truth that it will take a lot of hard work but not just hard work. Hard work alone will not be suf­fi­cient.

But even more im­por­tant than the will­ing­ness to work hard is the mind­set and the at­ti­tude and self-be­lief. That self-be­lief is more in­valu­able than all the sand in the sea.

At times, it seems as if we are hap­py just go­ing through the mo­tion and at the first sign of trou­ble we are ready to run and hide or jump ship.

Ten gold medals by the year 2024 is re­al­is­tic and achiev­able, not easy by any means, but it's TTO's goal to strive and achieve. The re­al ques­tion to be asked is are we en­cour­ag­ing our youth and young peo­ple to strive for great­ness. There are too many peo­ple in Trinidad and To­ba­go who seem glee­ful any time they have to tell you why you will fail. It's be­cause they don't be­lieve that it can be done. So they en­joy telling you you will fail. It will nev­er hap­pen or can nev­er hap­pen.

I be­lieve it's very im­por­tant to al­ways fight for what you be­lieve in. I re­main stead­fast in my be­lief that there are Olympic cham­pi­ons in Trinidad and To­ba­go. I be­lieve that it is im­por­tant to see in our youth and young peo­ple the po­ten­tial that can be ful­filled. I be­lieve that for too long we have en­cour­aged our youth and young peo­ple to de­ny their best self.

If by me be­ing laughed at and crit­i­cised, I am able to give our youth and young peo­ple who as­pire to be an Olympic cham­pi­on a safe space to dream, then it is well worth it.

Al­low our youth and young peo­ple the space to dream.