Admittedly, I'm not a big fan of the Olympic Games. It isn't that I don't appreciate the effort that the athletes put into their successes and, yes, failures. It is simply that I have always viewed what the athletes do on the periphery of my own life - much as I expect they do with my own life. They probably don't read what I write - they are busy training.
In essence, I'm a poor spectator. Except when it comes to FIFA World Cup Football. Then I lose my mind.
Even so, I have friends who appreciate the Olympic Games. In discussing with a friend who actually made it to the 1996 Olympics as a spectator, he pointed out a few interesting things to me. With the Beijing Olympics 2008 around the corner, the general public of Trinidad and Tobago probably knows more about the Olympics thanks to the branding of Coca Cola... yet does anyone in the country know who will be representing Trinidad and Tobago, much less the region? Unlike when the World Cup happened, there's really no paraphernalia for supporting the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic team. For people around the world, the Olympics are a big deal.
The Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee website doesn't have much - but it may have a piece of the puzzle here:
...Q. Why have only individuals excelled?
A. Simple! We still, as a nation, think that sport is a game. We continue to use the same methods, as well as sometimes, the same people to teach, manage and develop it, as we did three decades ago. Sporting Bodies just have not opened themselves to receiving the intellectual property that would allow them to develop and keep pace with the rest of the World. Consequently, this has forced individuals in sport, who have recognized their innate ability, to seek out alternative means of developing themselves. They recognize that to improve their performances they must compete in an environment that provides a structured (scientific) and proven approach to training, and most importantly, they must be able to compete with people who are better than they are.
For the development of anything we must first have people that clearly understand what they are trying to develop, to what level they are interested in developing too and finally prioritize the resources necessary to fulfill their expectations.
For Trinidad to excel once more as a nation in Sport, we must first develop the collective vision of where we want to go and then seek out those that have already traveled that path for proper instruction. The key word here is "Collective", all citizens have a part to play. There is nothing that we wish to accomplish here that has not already been tried and proven somewhere else, just look around. We would be arrogant to believe that we already have the solutions to our challenges in sport...
So who will be representing Trinidad and Tobago at the Olympic Games in the country that remains in custody of Tibet1? Who are those that are being sent? Who are these people? And why is it that I, a person not even truly interested in the Olympics, am forced to ask these questions 34 days before the beginning of the Olympic Games?
1 Come on, China, free Tibet. It was never yours, history does not bear you out.
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