A study based on Australia sports has found that it costs the Australian government approximately A$40m to win an Olympic medal.
That money covers the financial, medical, coaching and training needs of their elite athletes to enable them to be up to the level required to perform successfully on the world stage.
The Olympics are almost here. In just another few weeks, the eyes of the world will be upon London where the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will stage the games of the XXX Olympiad.
Guyana will of course be represented by a small group of athletes,none of whom have managed to make the qualifying `A’ standards.
What that means is that barring miracles, one should not hold any high hopes of this country adding to its lone medal – a bronze – won by Michael Anthony Parris at the 1980 Games in Moscow.
We will therefore have to confine ourselves to clapping for the Blakes (Yohan) and Bolts (Usain) of Jamaica not to mention Kirani James and the other Caribbean medal hopefuls.
What has been the reason for Guyana’s inability to win more medals at the Olympic Games?
The answer is simple; there has been really no investment, at least not on the scale needed to win medals.
It would be fair to say that there has been some improvement to the sports facilities landscape since Independence by the respective governments but those investments have been miniscule, especially compared to what is needed to be a Caribbean power, since being a World power in sports is out of the question.
Since this country’s initial foray into the Olympic Movement in 1948, subsequent participation at the games held every four years has shown very little improvement in terms of the size of the various Olympic squads or their successes.
Earlier this year, one of this country’s top athletes, USA-based Marian Burnett returned home in a patriotic act to run at the President’s/Jefford’s track and field classic in Linden.
The unforgettable image of those championships was Burnett wading through a pool of water en route to winning the women’s 1500m.
Not exactly the type of track that a world class athlete should be competing on in this day and age but that unfortunately is the reality of track and field in Guyana.
Brighter future
But there is hope for a brighter future for sportsmen and women in Guyana with plans by the government to become more involved in taking sports to greater heights.
At this year’s National Sports Awards ceremony President Donald Ramotar gave an invigorating speech while re-iterating his government’s support for sports, including Olympic sports.
Noting that this year was an Olympic year, President Ramotar said his government was committed to supporting Guyana’s participation at the London Olympic Games.
He acknowledged that the Olympic Games were the world’s premier international sporting event which brought together nations from all over the world in competition.
He was also cognizant of the fact that for athletes, “Olympic glory was their crowning ambition.”
In urging the relevant authorities to plan ahead for future Olympic Games, the president declared: ”We must more importantly begin to plan for our participation in the 2016 event which is slated to be hosted in Brazil. By then we would have completed our athletic track and our athletes would have had the opportunity to train at home at a world class facility, just as how the National Aquatic Centre allows our swimmers to have the experience of training daily in an Olympic-sized pool.”
He gave a commitment that the PPP/C government would continue to invest in facilities for the nation’s athletes. “We will continue to invest in facilities for our sportsmen and sportswomen. We are committed to the construction of a velodrome so that our cyclists no longer are relegated to competing and training on our roadways. And I will ensure that a warm-up pool, which was requested by the Guyana Swimming Association, is built at the National Aquatic Center.
If we are to produce world champions in sport, we have to move to another level of training.
He also spoke of establishing a tri-partite relationship among the government, the national associations and the public/private sector to “develop academies of excellence geared to churn out champion athletes.
“And we are discussing within the government the idea of elite and specialized coaching and training programmes so that we can take our finest athletes and make them world beaters,” President Ramotar said.
“My government is interested, as I have mentioned previously, in working in partnership with sporting associations under a new model, one that sees the respective associations taking the lead. Government does not always have to be the trailblazer.
“In the government, the stakeholders of sport have a friend who does not need conversion to their cause.
“I look forward in the future to us developing a harmonious relationship so that we can produce the next
generation of sporting heroes and heroines,” said President Ramotar.
His words might sound grandiose but his ideas are sound. However, the reality of the situation is that Guyana is unable to participate at numerous international meets which serve as breeding ground for future world beaters simply because of a lack of funding. A case in point Trinidad and Tobago’s U-23 athletes are currently participating at the North America, Central America and the Caribbean (NACAC)track and field championships in Irapuato, Mexico where 2012 Olympic qualifying times could have been recorded.
A lot of times athletes are forced to go begging, cap in hand, for money to pay for their airfare, accommodation and meals to attend regional championships simply because of the inability or reluctance of their respective federations to tackle this problem.
Given this sad, prevailing state of affairs, unless there is some government subvention for sports associations as is done in Trinidad and other Caribbean countries, Guyana will find it difficult to add to their medal tally at future Olympic Games despite the erection of world class facilities.
Unless of course this government decides to plough the equivalent of $A40m into the training of our elite athletes in the quest to win Olympic gold or other medals.
