T&T is head­ing back to the ice. The na­tion’s pres­ence on the glob­al win­ter sports stage was of­fi­cial­ly ce­ment­ed on Fri­day as the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) rat­i­fied the bob­sleigh and alpine ski teams for the up­com­ing Mi­lano Corti­na 2026 Olympic Win­ter Games.

​Sched­uled to run from Feb­ru­ary 6-22 in Italy, the Games will see the red, white, and black rep­re­sent­ed across mul­ti­ple dis­ci­plines, mark­ing a sig­nif­i­cant evo­lu­tion in the na­tion’s ath­let­ic reach. This con­fir­ma­tion is a proud mile­stone for lo­cal sport, high­light­ing a pe­ri­od of sus­tained progress and strate­gic de­vel­op­ment in win­ter dis­ci­plines far re­moved from the Caribbean heat.

​The bob­sleigh con­tin­gent re­turns for its sec­ond con­sec­u­tive Olympic ap­pear­ance fol­low­ing a suc­cess­ful out­ing at Bei­jing 2022. The squad is led by pi­lot Ax­el Brown, who re­turns to the Olympic stage along­side team­mates Sha­keel John, De Aun­dre John, Xaver­ri Williams, and Mic­ah Moore. To­geth­er, they form a com­pet­i­tive unit pre­pared to chal­lenge the world’s elite in both the two-man and four-man events.

​How­ev­er, the 2026 Games will al­so fea­ture a his­toric first: the Olympic de­but of a T&T alpine ski team. Over­seas-based ath­letes Em­ma Gat­cliffe and Nikhil Al­leyne are set to com­pete in the gi­ant slalom and slalom, sig­nif­i­cant­ly ex­pand­ing the na­tion’s foot­print in in­ter­na­tion­al win­ter sports.

​TTOC pres­i­dent Di­ane Hen­der­son, via a re­lease, laud­ed the ath­letes’ grit and the sym­bol­ic weight of their qual­i­fi­ca­tion. “This achieve­ment is a pow­er­ful re­minder that T&T ath­letes con­tin­ue to push bound­aries and re­de­fine what is pos­si­ble,” Hen­der­son stat­ed. “The re­turn of our bob­sleigh team to the Win­ter Olympic Games and the his­toric de­but of our alpine team re­flect the re­silience, am­bi­tion, and courage of our ath­letes. We are in­cred­i­bly proud of their jour­ney and look for­ward to sup­port­ing them as they rep­re­sent our na­tion on the world stage.”

​The del­e­ga­tion will be led by Chef de Mis­sion Lovie San­tana-Duke, the TTOC’s Project Lead for Games Man­age­ment and Ed­u­ca­tion. Backed by a spe­cial­ized team of coach­es and med­ical per­son­nel, the ath­letes will have the nec­es­sary sup­port to fi­nal­ize their high-per­for­mance train­ing.

​Com­ment­ing on the lo­gis­ti­cal tri­umph of the dou­ble-dis­ci­pline qual­i­fi­ca­tion, San­tana-Duke not­ed the in­spi­ra­tional na­ture of the achieve­ment. “The qual­i­fi­ca­tion of Team T&T for the Mi­lano Corti­na 2026 Win­ter Olympic Games is a mo­ment of im­mense pride for our na­tion,” she said. “Se­cur­ing places in both alpine ski­ing and bob­sleigh—in­clud­ing qual­i­fi­ca­tion for both the two-man and four-man bob­sleigh events—re­flects years of ded­i­ca­tion, re­silience, and strate­gic de­vel­op­ment by our ath­letes, coach­es, and sup­port teams.”

​San­tana-Duke fur­ther em­pha­sized that ge­og­ra­phy should nev­er be seen as a lim­it to T&T’s sport­ing po­ten­tial. “For a small Caribbean na­tion to com­pete on the world’s biggest win­ter sports stage is both sig­nif­i­cant and in­spir­ing,” she added. “It demon­strates that with vi­sion, com­mit­ment, and be­lief, our ath­letes can break tra­di­tion­al bound­aries and com­pete along­side the world’s best, re­gard­less of ge­og­ra­phy or cli­mate.”

​Fol­low­ing Fri­day’s rat­i­fi­ca­tion, the TTOC con­firmed that prepa­ra­tions are in high gear to en­sure both teams re­ceive the tech­ni­cal and ad­min­is­tra­tive sup­port re­quired for the fi­nal weeks of train­ing. The com­mit­tee ex­tend­ed its con­grat­u­la­tions to the ath­letes and their tech­ni­cal staff, in­clud­ing alpine coach­es Gabriel Mas­neri and Dane Spencer, and bob­sleigh head coach Lee John­ston.

​The re­lease added: “TTOC ex­tends heart­felt con­grat­u­la­tions to Ax­el Brown, Sha­keel John, De Aun­dre John, Xaver­ri Williams, Mic­ah Moore, Em­ma Gat­cliffe, and Nikhil Al­leyne, along with their coach­es and sup­port per­son­nel, whose ded­i­ca­tion has made this his­toric qual­i­fi­ca­tion pos­si­ble. As TeamT­TO pre­pares to com­pete once again at the Olympic Win­ter Games, T&T stands unit­ed in pride and sup­port.”

Team TTO con­tin­gent

Chef de Mis­sion: Lovie San­tana-Duke

Alpine Ski­ing Gi­ant Slalom & Slalom

Ath­letes: Em­ma Gat­cliff, Nikhil Al­leyne

Of­fi­cials

F-Alpine - Gabriel Mas­neri (head coach), James Gat­cliffe (as­sis­tant coach)

M-Alpine - Dane Spencer (head coach), Vi­vaan Al­leyne (as­sis­tant coach

Bob­sleigh team two-man & four-man

Ath­letes: Ax­el Brown (pi­lot), Sha­keel John, De Aun­dre John, Xaver­ri Williams, Mic­ah Moore

Of­fi­cials: Lee John­ston (head coach), Chris Brown (me­chan­ic), Jen­ny Birch (phys­io­ther­a­pist)

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