Trinidad & Tobago’s Prime Minister’s address at reception for Trinidad and Tobago’s 2012 Olympic team

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – On Thursday, September 13 Prime Minister, the Honourable Kamla Persad-Bissessar addressed Trinidad and Tobago’s 2012 Olympic team at a special reception.

Prime Minister, the Honourable Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s statement:

Today is a good day ladies and gentlemen!! Today all of us gathered here have, once again, been given an opportunity to recognize the magnificent efforts and sterling achievements of our 2012 National Olympic Team and Paralympic Team.

I am extremely pleased that the men and women of our history-making Olympic Team and Paralympic Team have accepted the invitation to join me this evening to honour their success.

In a period of just over two weeks, from Friday July 27th – Sunday August 12th, these young men and women who are with us today, showed the world, the potential and talent of a small island Nation of just 1.3 million people.

My young friends, you competed against some of the best athletes in the world. Yet you were able to hold our own and rise to the top of the ranks.

In this the year of our Golden Jubilee of Independence, our small Nation left an indelible mark on the world sporting stage.

Trinidad and Tobago was immediately catapulted into the spotlight with our Olympic gold, brought home by young Keshorn Walcott, 36 years after Hasely Crawford took gold at the Montreal Olympics; Lalonde Gordon’s bronze medal and the additional haul of two more bronze medals by the teamwork of Callender, Bledman, Burns and Thompson; and Alleyne-Forte, Lendore, Solomon and Lalonde Gordon.

Together with your fellow gifted Olympians – Njisane Phillips, George Bovell, Cleopatra Borel-Brown, Kelly Ann Baptiste, Semoy Hackett and Jehue Gordon, Trinidad and Tobago in 2012, boasted 13 finalists, both individuals and teams, which is a record to date for our country at the Summer Olympics.

Additionally, a number of firsts were recorded at London 2012. We had a sailor, Andrew Lewis, representing for the first time in the Laser Class. We had a triple jumper, Ayanna Alexander, the first woman to participate in this event. We had two hurdlers in the 110m event, Mikel Thomas and Wayne Davis, who wore the red white and black for the first time at the Olympics. Our Paralympians, Carlos Greene and Shanntol Ince, also represented this country for the first time and with great distinction.

Your remarkable achievements fulfilled the hopes and dreams of a Nation, rekindled National pride and allowed our citizens bragging rights, as we shared in the glory of your accomplishments. We are in your debt. Once again I congratulate all of you on your success.

Trinidad and Tobago has now medalled in five consecutive Summer Olympics since 1996, continuing a history of proud Olympic participation since 1948, when Rodney Adolphus Wilkes captured silver in weightlifting, 1952 when he captured bronze along with fellow weightlifter Lennox Kilgour. In 1964 when our nation was just two years old Trinidad and Tobago captured bronze in the 200m through Edwin Roberts, silver in the 400m from Wendell Mottley, and Bronze in the 4x400m with the Miracle Four, Mottley, Roberts, Skinner and Bernard. Then of course who does not remember that faithful day in 1976 when we heard our anthem played for the first time when Hasley Crawford won gold in the 100m final. Now a new generation has experienced the joys of gold in our Golden Jubilee it is fitting that the world heard the refrain of our anthem in this our 50th year of our independence.

However even as we celebrate these achievements today, we must look to the future if we are to continue to record and improve upon the successes we have enjoyed this year.

I note that many of our citizens and you, our athletes, have remarked that we can only hope to keep in the ‘winner’s circle’, if sustained and meaningful support is given to our athletes – both our up and coming juniors and our more accomplished sports women and men.

This evening, ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to advise you that my Government hears and fully appreciates your concerns. And we are prepared to take up the challenge of moulding emerging athletes into medalled athletes.

My Government also understands that sport is much more than an avenue to elicit national pride and invoke patriotism. Rather it is an effective means to channel the energies of our youth into positive, productive endeavours and away from the temptation of crime and anti-social behaviour.

I now take this opportunity to announce the launch of NESTT (National Excellence in Sports for Trinidad and Tobago), an all- encompassing programme, beginning in the formative years at Early Childhood Centres into primary and secondary schools and extending to the tertiary level, which will provide our young, talented citizens with access to expert talent-identification scouts, certified coaches, mentors and sport psychologists. This programme will not only build our athletic capacity but create an all-round healthy, vibrant generation.

NESTT is an initiative of the Office of the Prime Minister and will be implemented by the Ministry of Sport in collaboration with the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago. The programme meant to nurture our potential athletes from the initial development of their motor skills through the various coaching levels of their chosen sport from which will emerge our future coaches, athletes, champions and yes Olympic Medallists.

To support this goal your government will over the next 6 years construct academies in ALL 41 constituencies. These will facilitate the training and educational needs of our country’s best young athletes who will be nurtured by the best coaches, sports psychologists, therapists, nutritionists, strength and conditioning specialists. At these academies there will be seamless transition from primary to secondary so that these young student athletes will not have to undergo the psychological and emotional stress that is synonymous with the SEA exams.
N.E.S.T.T. National Excellence in Sports for Trinidad and Tobago. Inspired by you, our Olympians and Paralympians. Conceptualised by your Government and designed to serve generations to come.

Announcement of intent

We therefore have no hesitation in investing heavily in the area of sport and this will be reflected in the upcoming fiscal period.

We are determined to create an environment for our young people that would make the choice of a profession in sport, a viable option for those persons who excel in sporting disciplines.

We want to open not only windows but doors of opportunity to our boys and girls, who now hold our Olympians and Paralympians in high regard and dream of one day repeating or surpassing their success.

Rest assured, we are aware that we can only increase our medal tally through the right facilities, funding, training and administrative planning.

My government also acknowledges the constraints and conditions under which our athletes who study abroad must operate. Scholarships accessed through external sources or from the school itself, prevent student-athletes from accepting additional financial support.

Therefore, strong consideration is being given to the establishment of national academic scholarships for our Accomplished Elite Student Athletes, which would afford them the opportunity to attend schools of their choice and select sport specific coaches. This programme will complement the existing Elite Athlete Programme, which offers a maximum of $250,000 to cover medical, nutritional, travel and training expenses for athletes who are among the Top 40 in the world in their sporting discipline. All athletes who meet this and other criteria are eligible to apply, through their respective governing body, and access the funding.

In keeping therefore with the customary tradition of offering incentive and reward to athletes for a job well done, my Government will not renege on its duty to suitably acknowledge the efforts of the Olympic medallists.

The 4x100m relay team members – Marc Burns, Emmanuel Callender, Keston Bledman and Richard Thompson – will each receive a sum of Three Hundred Thousand Dollars (TT$300,000).
The 4x400m relay team members – Lalonde Gordon, Jarrin Solomon, Ade Alleyne-Forte and Deon Lendore – will each receive the sum of Three Hundred Thousand Dollars (TT$300,000). Allow me to note that policy and other considerations necessitate the establishment of a trust fund for elite athletes who are on scholarship.

In 1998, it was the UNC government of which I was proud to be a member of Cabinet, who duly acknowledged and rewarded our then only Olympic gold medallist Mr Hasely Crawford with a luxury home in Federation Park and the naming of our national stadium after him. Once again, the People’s Partnership Government is called upon to right a wrong.

George Bovell, who won a bronze medal in the 200m Individual Medley in Athens 2004 was never rewarded by the former PNM regime for earning the country’s first and only Olympic swimming medal and the ONLY medal for Trinidad and Tobago at the 2004 Athens Olympics. The PNM is not renowned for its ability to apologise. But Mr. Bovell, on behalf of the government and people of Trinidad and Tobago, we humbly apologise for the disregard and disrespect meted out to you by the previous regime. In this regard, my Government is proud to announce today that you Mr. Bovell will receive the sum of Three Hundred Thousand Dollars (TT$300,000) in recognition of your sterling service to country during the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

Next Steps/ Pledge of support

Ladies and gentlemen, when we look around the room this evening we should take pride in the knowledge that we have the talent and the capability to shatter more world records and re-write sporting history.

We have the potential to excel beyond our expectations.

Rio 2016 is right around the corner. As you know, for those of you here and for those aspiring athletes who wish to qualify for the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics; over the next four years there will be several competition opportunities which will serve to prepare you for the Rio Games.

I refer to the World Championships in 2013 in Moscow; the Central American and Caribbean Games in 2014 in Veracruz, Mexico; the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow also in 2014 and the Pan American Games hosted by Toronto in 2015.

These competitions not only provide you, as individuals, with fertile testing grounds in your specific discipline; but it also showcases the collective talent of our great Nation.

And therefore our Nation must not and will not waiver in its support for you. Just as you, our Olympians and Paralympians brought our country recognition and respect.

So too, my Government on behalf of a grateful Nation, makes a commitment to you and to our emerging athletes that more effective and efficient mechanisms will be put in place, to ensure that our sports men and women achieve their full potential.

We also appreciate the value of participation in regional and international sporting competitions in sharpening an athlete’s skills.

These are the areas we are seeking to address in support of a more streamlined approach to grooming athletes of excellence.

Concluding comments

Ladies and gentlemen, investing in sport not only is an investment in the future of our young citizens. It is an investment in the future of our country.

My Government stands proudly alongside our Olympians and Paralympians, resolute in our commitment to provide the resources that will keep our current sporting heroes at the top of their disciplines and develop the potential of all our emerging, gifted sportsmen and women.

Trinidad & Tobago’s Prime Minister, the Honourable Kamla Persad-Bissessar with the 2012 Olympic team. Photo courtesy newsday.co.tt.
Once again, I pay tribute to you, the members of our 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Teams. Congratulations on a job well done!

May God continue to bless you and your families and May God bless our Nation.