Ac­tions speak loud­er than words, be a true agent of change. Be the best that you can be.

The mis­sion of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) “Go­ing for Gold” Foun­da­tion is to “fo­cus on some of the ma­jor is­sues fac­ing ath­letes as­pir­ing to win Olympic gold, with the goal of en­cour­ag­ing them to be their best while al­so teach­ing them the im­por­tance of fi­nan­cial, so­cial, emo­tion­al, and phys­i­cal health.

Since its in­cep­tion, in 2015, the marathon walk has pro­mot­ed aware­ness and served to raise funds for the am­bi­tious - some will say un­re­al­is­tic ob­jec­tive of the Foun­da­tion’s mis­sion and pur­pose.

In the mod­ern it­er­a­tion of glob­al Olympic sport, the pur­suit of Olympic goal is no longer a vol­un­teer pur­suit.

In the lead-up to Jan­u­ary 19, 2025- the 11th edi­tion of the walk, this col­umn will fo­cus at­ten­tion on some of the is­sues that make the Foun­da­tion’s mis­sion and pur­pose rel­e­vant, valid and I dare say time­less.

How­ev­er, this week’s Things That Mat­ter will fo­cus on fi­nan­cial trans­paren­cy, in­tegri­ty and an­ti-cor­rup­tion in sports. Why? This week (De­cem­ber 9- 15) is SIGA’s (Sport In­tegri­ty Glob­al Al­liance) An­ti-Cor­rup­tion Week.

Yes­ter­day Mon­day (De­cem­ber 9) was In­ter­na­tion­al An­ti-Cor­rup­tion Day.

SIGA has urged all or­gan­i­sa­tions in the glob­al sport ecosys­tem to sup­port its mis­sion to en­sure: (1) a sus­tain­able, pros­per­ous, in­clu­sive and ac­ces­si­ble fu­ture, built up­on the pil­lars of in­tegri­ty, trans­paren­cy and good gov­er­nance; (2) that any in­vest­ment or al­lo­ca­tion of pub­lic fund­ing to sport, or any oth­er sec­tor, ir­re­spec­tive of in­tent, is con­duct­ed with ab­solute trans­paren­cy, ac­count­abil­i­ty and over­sight.

Emanuel Mace­do de Medeiros, Glob­al CEO, SIGA - in an OP-ED pub­lished yes­ter­day - said and I quote: “Cor­rup­tion is not just a threat - it is a cor­ro­sive force that un­der­mines the very foun­da­tions of so­ci­ety. In sport, it jeop­ar­dis­es trust, in­tegri­ty, and the core val­ues that in­spire bil­lions around the globe. As we ob­serve In­ter­na­tion­al An­ti-Cor­rup­tion Day and SIGA’s An­ti-Cor­rup­tion Week, the call to ac­tion is clear­er than ever: We must unite to pro­tect Sport from the in­creas­ing threat of cor­rup­tion and crim­i­nal in­fil­tra­tion.

“De­spite progress in re­cent years, it is wide­ly recog­nised that Sport con­tin­ues to grap­ple with sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges, in­clud­ing weak gov­er­nance, in­ad­e­quate reg­u­la­tions, a lack of tar­get­ed, re­sults-dri­ven col­lab­o­ra­tion, and in­suf­fi­cient in­de­pen­dent scruti­ny and over­sight. These de­fi­cien­cies cre­ate a per­mis­sive en­vi­ron­ment that en­ables cor­rup­tion, mon­ey laun­der­ing, tax eva­sion, and the grow­ing men­ace of transna­tion­al or­gan­ised crime. The ur­gency for a ro­bust, mod­ernised, and ef­fec­tive glob­al reg­u­la­to­ry frame­work, cou­pled with in­clu­sive, co­or­di­nat­ed, ac­tion-ori­ent­ed and re­sult-dri­ven co­op­er­a­tion, at both na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al lev­els, has nev­er been greater.

“We must re­mind our­selves that or­gan­ised crime doesn’t play by the book, doesn’t take days off, and doesn’t have any scru­ples. Cor­rup­tion is a glob­al threat that re­quires im­me­di­ate and co­or­di­nat­ed ac­tion.

“The time for ac­tion is now. If not now, when? If not us, who? On­ly to­geth­er we can en­sure that sport re­mains a space of virtue, free from cor­rup­tion, mon­ey laun­der­ing, tax eva­sion and crim­i­nal in­flu­ence - and re­main a bea­con of hope and in­spi­ra­tion for gen­er­a­tions to come. “ — End quote.

And fi­nal­ly: At times it feels as if the fight against cor­rup­tion is a los­ing bat­tle to those who hav­ing mas­tered the art of sophistry can now hide be­hind their sophistry to un­der­mine ef­forts to make good gov­er­nance, in­tegri­ty, fi­nan­cial trans­paren­cy, ac­count­abil­i­ty and a cor­rup­tion-free en­vi­ron­ment, the lived ex­pe­ri­ence.

This week as we side with SIGA for an­ti-cor­rup­tion in sport, the ques­tion is, are you ded­i­cat­ed to ad­vanc­ing fi­nan­cial in­tegri­ty and trans­paren­cy in sport gov­er­nance?