Lovie Santana-Duke named Trinidad and Tobago's chef de mission for Olympics

Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) senior administration officer Lovie Santana-Duke will serve as team TTO's chef de mission for the July 26-August 11 Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The TTOC confirmed this on Thursday, as it marked the 50-day countdown to the prestigious games with a press briefing at Olympic House, Woodford Street, Port of Spain.

It also announced a partnership with The Hideout Clothing, which will see the store designing the uniforms to be worn by the TT athletes for the games' opening ceremony.

Santana-Duke has a wealth of experience with TT contingents at various games, and will be returning as the team's chef de mission after serving in the role at the Tokyo Olympics, which was pushed to 2021 owing to covid19. Santana-Duke served as assistant chef de mission for the 2016 Rio Olympics, Brazil.

Santana-Duke has held the position of TTOC's senior administrative officer for over ten years, and was TT's chef de mission for the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games in Colombia, as well as the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Santana-Duke said the team is currently in "high preparation" mode, and the TTOC is arranging a pre-games camp for the track and field athletes, as well as members of the swim team. She said the tentative date for the pre-games athletics camp is July 18-25.

"Our athletes continue to train tirelessly...they have shown dedication, perseverance, resilience and unwavering commitment to represent TT with honour and pride," Santana-Duke said.

TTOC president Diane Henderson expects TT to send approximately 20-35 athletes to the Olympics. With several athletes still doing their utmost to meet the varying Olympic qualifying standards before the end of June, Henderson said the team will be announced early next month.

"We won't be able to do anything until July 8, which is the final day for submitting the team to the Olympic organising committee. After that time, that's when we'll be able to do the official announcement.

"We have quite a lot of educational aspects the athletes must go through," she added. "Anti-doping is something which is ongoing as well as safeguarding. There is a mental course the organising committee has sent down. All of these things are being co-ordinated in the background."

TT's 4x100-metre and men's 4x400m relay teams confirmed their spots for the Olympics last month in exciting fashion at the World Athletics Relay Championship in Bahamas. Ace athlete Jereem Richards, who was a member of the 4x400m quartet, achieved the Olympic standard in the men's 200m event last week when he grabbed a gold medal at the Racers Grand Prix in Jamaica.

Richards is expected to be among TT's medal hopefuls at the games, alongside swimmer Dylan Carter and sprint cycling phenom Nicholas Paul.

TT returned from the Tokyo Olympics without any medals. At the 2016 games, 2012 gold medallist Keshorn Walcott grabbed a bronze medal in the men's javelin.

The Hideout Clothing co-founder Sebastien Gibert said he was delighted for the opportunity to design the team's wear for the opening ceremony.

"It was an idea that came to me when I realised the Olympics were taking place in Paris and The Hideout Clothing has our first flagship store in the heart of Paris. I reached out to the Olympic committee, with the aid of Fashion TT, to make it happen," Gibert said, via a video which was shown at the briefing.

Gibert said the coral snake was the inspiration behind the design, which is expected to be unveiled to the public when the team departs for France.

"Even though the coral snake is so small, it has a venomous bite.

"I think that kinda symbolises TT in the Olympics. We're a small country, but we still have a venomous bite and we're coming for gold and we're coming to win."