Source: www.guardian.co.tt
By: Brian Lewis
I have some serious doubts about T&T’s continued success in the international sport arena, more than 20 years after Hasely Crawford’s 1976 100m Olympic gold medal at the Montreal Olympic Games. T&T’s recent Olympic history has not been an empty handed one, however. In 2006, T&T qualified for the Fifa World Cup final. Our boxers have captured World titles; in 1979, our netballers were joint World champions. Prior to 1976, T&T sportsmen mounted the Olympic podium one more than one occasion— achievements that many take for granted. While we have won numerous regional, continental and age grade titles and medals, the specific focus is on World and Olympic level. The inability to bridge the gap between continental, regional and age-grade achievements is part of the problem as we seem unable over the years to build on those successes. Why? Is it arrogance or ignorance?
Achieving sustainable and consistent progress and success demands a tireless work ethic, creativity, innovation and unwavering perspiration. It’s not talent, potential or ability. You can have all those things in spades but if discipline, commitment, dedication and determination are a mere figment of the imagination, success is just a mirage. The overarching reality is that to challenge for the first prize requires sticking to the basics—the willingness to ethically prepare and do what is necessary; the acceptance that success is a process... you have to creep before you walk. There must be a solid foundation in place. The loss or the win is never the whole story. To get the right answers you have to look at the entire journey. The Olympic Games comes once every four years for most people. For the Olympian it is a journey that is endured every day for four years. The same can be said for World championships and World Cups. The timeline may change from four to two years and in some cases annually. The principle remains the same. The journey is traveled daily. It is what is done every second, every minute, every hour of the day.
National level sportsmen and women must have the discipline to prepare and to keep pushing themselves past their comfort zone. To be successful in elite and international sport you have to think sport, sleep sport, drink sport, and eat sport. When a national training squad can complain to a NSO that they don’t want to play a practice or trial game because it is Easter weekend and the players have other plans, you can comfortably say “Houston, we have a problem”. Sports administrators must face and accept the challenges that present themselves and in doings so focus on the cause not the effects:
When our sportsmen and women cannot find a gym to lift weights or sporting facilities within close proximity to where they live, or when sport is not seen as an integral aspect of a child’s education, we have fundamental issues and problems to address.
Armchair experts, armchair critics, armchair supporters and armchair participants are in abundant supply. What’s needed are more children, communities, schools, adults and families playing and enjoying sports rather than talking about or watching sports. The successes we enjoy at this time and are likely to enjoy between now and 2012 would have come about because of work done and efforts made from as far back as 1995. That’s history. In fact some of what worked then is no longer relevant. If we are to continue to enjoy success beyond 2012, it is time to come out of our comfort zone, sooner rather than later. Listen! Get off your high horse, this is not about top down, it is about down up. It’s not about you or me—it’s more about what we are not doing rather than what we are doing.
Brian Lewis is the Honorary Secretary General of the T&T Olympic Committee http// www.ttoc.org. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the T&TOC.
Team TTO
Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee