New era for Olympians

THE OLYMPICS team to represent TT was announced on Saturday. While there are some familiar names among the athletes who will represent the country later in July, this is not a team that should be measured only by potential medals.

Two-time Olympic medallist Keshorn Walcott will compete again in the javelin event, but he could not meet the 85.5 metre standard for qualification. He qualified instead based on his world ranking, where he is the sixth best athlete in the world.

His presence on the team is a testament to the consistency he has shown in his sport, chasing excellence continuously and, in doing so, earning his place among the top 32 javelin competitors who will compete at this year’s event in Paris.

Also demonstrating athletic consistency that qualified them for the Olympics were shot-putter Portious Warren and sprinters Michelle-Lee Ahye and Leah Bertrand.

The men's 4x100m relay team missed being selected for competition by a single placing in the world rankings.

So there's clearly a reward for steady, consistent work in athletics and room for stand-out performances among some of our athletes.

Dylan Carter, for example, will appear at his third Olympics coming off a TT record time and personal best at the 2023 TYR Pro Swim series where he won a gold medal.

Cyclist Nicholas Paul netted gold and silver at the Pan American Games in 2023.

The 17-member athletic team will compete in three sports at the 2024 Olympics, nine of them bringing TT's colours to track and field.

The country will hope for the best, but the reality is that while this is our best available team and each competition day brings its own dynamics, there clearly is more to be done to develop local athletes.

TT’s athletics programmes are still undergoing their own rejuvenation, beginning with a 2023 commitment to collaborative programmes with Jamaica's GC Foster College, where athletics training begins for children as early as three years old.

Starting with coaches and trainers is clearly the best option for TT, which has largely depended on natural talent and foreign coaching for its successes in athletics.

But creating a home-grown engine of athletic excellence will take time, patience and commitment. This is the work of decades, not months.

The Olympics are the pinnacle of modern athletic competitive achievement, but TT's appreciation for the value of sport among its youth shouldn't start and end there.

There is a lot more work to be done in cultivating the next generation of athletic stars across a range of disciplines.

Creating a collaborative framework between the Sports Ministry, SporTT and the 15 national governing bodies for local sport to train our trainers and push the value of competitive sport deeper into our communities and schools can only reap positive dividends.