Brian Lewis, president of the T&T Olympic Committee (TTOC) says as local athletes and their technical teams chart a trajectory for sustained and continued success on the international stage, integrity in sport must be at the core of what they do.
Speaking at Monday's 17th TTOC Awards Ceremony held at Theatre I of the National Academy for the Performing Arts, Frederick Street, Port-of-Spain, he said: "It is essential that we meet the integrity challenge by protecting Olympic and Commonwealth sports from the dangerous threat posed by doping, gambling, the cycle of corruption and poor governance. If we don't face these challenges, our right to self-regulate, our autonomy, legitimacy our stewardship will be taken away from us."
Lewis added: "The TTOC will continue in 2015 to vigorously promote the adoption of good governance and ethics across the country's Olympic and Commonwealth sport movement and that we be unwavering and advocate and vigorously promote a good governance code for sport in T&T, to ensure that affiliated national sporting organisations align with the Olympic charter and include in their constitutions basic universal principles of good governance."
The TTOC head said his organisation would remain indomitable and passionate in its belief that the goal of the Olympic movement, to use sport to educate and serve young people, was as relevant today as it was 2000 plus years ago.Reaching out to young people and enticing them to become part of the sporting culture, he said, and illustrating the power of sport was among the Olympic values.
He added that the TTOC and NSOs must ensure that athletes who were inspirations and role models were at the centre of all efforts."The TTOC must lead from the front in championing for the development of a sport industry. This will require not just lobbying and finger pointing, but the articulation of the conceptual framework that will inform the policy debate. Our collective challenge is to take sport mainstream. Sport is still on the margins in T&T society. The children, youth and young people of contemporary T&T have a lot of different interests that present a threat to active sport and healthy lifestyles," he said.
Lewis added, "Part of the new attitude to sport is the digital transformation of sport; a world where it seems you are only as good as your Internet connection. The sheer talent, promise and potential of the nation's youth and young people as represented by our athletes is simply breath-taking, but you have to watch and pay close attention.In pursuit of their dream, in striving for excellence our Olympic and Commonwealth athletes endure punishing hours of training and the arduous task of endless repetition. Often their inspiration, dedication, resilience, commitment and self-discipline go unnoticed."