The T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee is re­lent­less in its fight to over­come ob­sta­cles of cul­ture, mind­set and at­ti­tude while con­tin­u­ing on the path of be­ing peo­ple-cen­tred and ath­lete-cen­tred which be­gins with re­spect for sport and for the pos­i­tive dif­fer­ence sport de­liv­ers in the lives of young peo­ple.

Suc­cess for the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee is em­pow­er­ing them to build a fu­ture do­ing what they love and de­vel­op­ing a body of work of which they can be proud.

Mak­ing T&T proud will al­ways be at the fore­front of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee ve­hi­cle of Olymp­ism.

Re­spect for sport and those in­volved in sport is not a lin­ear pro­gres­sion.

Cul­ture plays a big part. There is a cul­ture of dis­re­spect and fun­da­men­tal mis­un­der­stand­ing of where the dif­fer­ent stake­hold­ers fit in the sport ecosys­tem based on a colo­nial mind­set of who is boss.

Re­cent­ly the vis­i­ble ev­i­dence of the mis­un­der­stand­ing of roles be­came em­bar­rass­ing­ly stark and pub­lic when Richard Thomp­son was on the re­ceiv­ing end of cor­re­spon­dence from the Min­istry of Sport and Youth Af­fairs that could be per­ceived as a lack of re­spect for his Olympic achieve­ment.

There is an age old say­ing - It is not what you say, but how you say it.

The Elite Ath­lete As­sis­tance Pro­gramme is not a stick.

The eco­nom­ic re­ces­sion bat­ter­ing T&T is not an ex­cuse to treat any­one with a lack of dig­ni­ty, em­pa­thy and re­spect nor should it por­tend a de­cline of our hu­man­i­ty.

Re­solv­ing con­flict ought not to de­scend in­to an or­gy of bac­cha­nal.

While the fo­cus at this time maybe on Richard Thomp­son it's not on­ly ath­letes and oth­er sport stake­hold­ers that, at times, feel dis­re­spect­ed. In the main, the lack of a con­cept of ser­vice and how to be ser­vice-ori­ent­ed must be ad­dressed across many sec­tors.

T&T must em­brace ser­vice and be­ing ser­vice-ori­ent­ed as fun­da­men­tal to the di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion of our econ­o­my since there are dif­fi­cult and chal­leng­ing times, but we must re­spect each oth­er's right to voice con­cerns.

T&T can al­ways de­pend on sport to de­liv­er in a pos­i­tive man­ner. Achiev­ing an Olympic or World cham­pi­onship medal is not an easy or sim­ple en­deav­our and it must not be tak­en for grant­ed. The world is cur­rent­ly watch­ing the 23rd edi­tion of the Win­ter Olympics in Pey­ongchang dis­play­ing ath­letes who are at the pin­na­cle of their sport and their sto­ries of ded­i­ca­tion, grit, dis­ap­point­ment and achieve­ment are in­spir­ing to the ear. The ath­letes' road is of­ten a lone­ly one, a painful one, a dis­ap­point­ing one.

All that sport stake­hold­ers ask for at a min­i­mum in re­turn is re­spect and dig­ni­ty in good times and bad times.

bri­a­clewis@gmail.com