While the majority of young Trinbagonians stay preoccupied with catching Pokemons and increasing their number of followers and "likes" on social media, there were a handful who chose to represent our nation at the recently concluded Olympic games, held in Brazil.
Keshorn Walcott was the only person to secure a medal. When asked to comment on their performances, our athletes said that they were happy to have qualified for the Olympic games and maintained that they did their best. These athletes were lambasted on the Internet, newspapers and radio programmes, for their efforts and were branded as substandard and mediocre at best.
Critics argued that through the Elite Athlete Assistance Programme our athletes are given financial support up to $250,000 on a four-year cycle and as such, should have performed better.
Ours is a culture of all or nothing. When our representatives win, we are quick to rename streets, promenades and stadia in their honour. They are given large monetary rewards, vehicles and houses and placed on pedestals. When they fail to meet our high expectations, we stone them off these pedestals.
We treat our athletes as investments that should be dumped if we do not get high returns. We forget that these are young people who have a genuine passion for sport and have committed their lives and bodies to achieve personal goals. They choose to represent our nation and do so with pride.
While they train and put in the work, our duty as countrymen is to demonstrate unwavering patriotism and support. We must understand that people define success differently. Only one person can receive a gold medal in an event but it doesn't mean that all other participants are losers.
If this mentality of all or nothing persists, we will rob our children of the confidence to chase their dreams. They will learn to fear failure and will not bother to try. We will then become a society of onlookers who hide behind social media and criticise those who dare to achieve.
Karen Thomas,
Couva