The Na­tion­al Lot­ter­ies Con­trol Board (NL­CB) has for­malised its part­ner­ship with the Trinidad and To­ba­go Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC ). The his­toric agree­ment re­sult­ed in the cre­ation by the NL­CB of a new in­stant mon­ey (Scratch ) game called Go­ing For Gold that will car­ry the #10golds24 lo­go. The pro­ject­ed con­tri­bu­tion is $200,000 with po­ten­tial to gen­er­ate one mil­lion dol­lars or more per an­num.

The up­per end is an am­bi­tious tar­get that will re­quire the Go­ing for Gold game to be ex­treme­ly pop­u­lar and well sup­port­ed by the pub­lic.It's a start com­pared to what is re­ceived from na­tion­al lot­tery fund­ing in oth­er coun­tries.Aside from the cash in­jec­tion in­to the Ten or more Olympic Gold medals by the year 2024 Ath­lete Wel­fare and Prepa­ra­tion fund, there are a num­ber of oth­er ath­lete fo­cused el­e­ments such as in­tern­ship, on­go­ing train­ing etc.

But the re­al win for the TTOC and NL­CB is the cre­ation of a new par­a­digm in re­spect of think­ing out­side the box. The will­ing­ness to come up with new an­swers to old ques­tions is a cred­it to the de­ci­sion mak­ers at NL­CB.Se­nior ex­ec­u­tives at NL­CB were fo­cused on cre­ative so­lu­tions so as to sup­port the TTOC to meet chal­lenges and op­ti­mise op­por­tun­ties.

How can we get sport in T&T to flour­ish?One of the key pri­or­i­ties is to take the guess work out of how sport is fund­ed.What are our most im­por­tant fi­nan­cial goals? Is our fi­nan­cial re­sources the de­ter­min­ing fac­tor in how we are able to plan and acheive set tar­gets? There are pros and cons to every­thing.

Some of our ath­letes are ex­treme­ly mo­ti­vat­ed to work hard to acheive their Olympic dreams and goals. Their mo­ti­va­tion is ev­i­dent.NL­CB is a won­der­ful ex­am­ple of a cor­po­rate/state en­ti­ty com­mit­ted to find­ing a way to help and sup­port the Olympic Dream.Our ath­letes are ded­i­cat­ed. They have na­tion­al pride and are fierce­ly com­pet­i­tive. To build a suc­cess­ful ca­reer in elite sport re­quires those three at­trib­ut­es among oth­ers in abun­dance.

Our ath­letes mat­ter. They have an un­bri­dled ex­cite­ment and en­thu­si­asm and de­ter­mi­na­tion to give their all for their coun­try. They have sto­ries that every­one should hear.Since 1997, when na­tion­al lot­tery fund­ing was in­tro­duced to di­rect­ly help British Olympic and Par­a­lympic sport, Team GB has be­come one of the lead­ing Olympic na­tions in the world.

Their leg­endary Olympic great Sir Chris Hoy has said with­out ded­i­cat­ed na­tion­al lot­tery fund­ing he would not have achieved his Olympic dreams. The British ap­proach to na­tion­al lot­tery fund­ing for Olympic sport is now be­ing adopt­ed by a num­ber of oth­er coun­tries.

So while the NL­CB Go­ing for Gold In­stant Mon­ey Game rolled out to the pub­lic on Mon­day is new, it is not un­prece­dent­ed around the world. It is a first and his­toric step to ad­vance the dis­cus­sion for T&T to fol­low the British ap­proach to na­tion­al lot­tery fund­ing for Olympic sport.UK na­tion­al lot­tery fund­ing is sup­port­ing the sto­ries of courage and re­silience of British ath­letes who as­pire to win Olympic medals and be­come Olympic Cham­pi­ons.

I be­lieve a sim­i­lar, ded­i­cat­ed and spe­cif­ic na­tion­al lot­tery fund­ing ap­proach that is trans­par­ent and ac­count­able will have a huge and trans­for­ma­tive im­pact on Olympic sport here. To acheive the tar­get of ten or more Olympic gold medals, the first chal­lenge is for the NL­CB and TTOC to en­sure that the Go­ing for Gold In­stant Mon­ey Game is a suc­cess.

Bri­an Lewis is the Pres­i­dent of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee. The views ex­pressed are not nec­es­sar­i­ly those of the Olympic Com­mit­tee.Sup­port #10 Golds24 Ath­lete Wel­fare and Prepa­ra­tion Fund make your do­na­tions to any branch of Sco­tia­bank ac­count num­ber 171188.