If it were politics Kalam Juman-Yassin’s 19-year tenure as Guyana Olympics Association (GOA) president would be akin to a covetous despot, aiming to rule his country for life.
In sport though, such extravagances are par for the course.
The GOA president has joined the ranks of modern era global sports administrators whose lengthy hold on power has become legendary.
The late Juan Antonio Samaranch served 21 years as president of the International Olympic Association (IOC), the GOA’s parent body, not to mention mammoth terms served by the likes of the late Pierre Baron de Coubertin (considered the father of the modern Olympic Games) who was in office from 1896 to 1925 and Avery Brundage who was president from n1952 -1972.
The late Joao Havelange and Sepp Blatter both did 20-plus years running the International Football Federation (FIFA) while Primo Nebiolo and Lamine Diack came close to decades plus tenure heading the world athletics federation the IAAF.
And any number of National Olympic Association presidents around the world can be singled out for similar lengthy terms like Jamaica’s Mike Fennell.
The problem is such mammoth periods at the helm lead to complacency and a deterioration of standards.
The GOA is no exception.
An acute review of its operations is therefore a must if the disciplines the association oversees can evolve to any level near medal contention at future Olympic Games.
A look at the GOA’s makeup reveals an executive filled with officials in office from time immemorial in a Guyana context, in sport administration.
Today, the IOC’s affiliate body in Guyana has become one of the most secretive of all national organizations, in and out of sport, in the country.
And a few of the immovables will agree such secrecy is not in the best interests of the GOA’s mission to primarily develop competitors in those disciplines covered by the Olympic umbrella.
It has a bizarre constitution which prevents the disclosure of identities of the individuals challenging for the presidency and possibly other executive positions, until elections day.
This anomaly has made the GOA a justifiable target for attacks by local media that has intensified in the run-up to today’s elections.
Also, the GOA has never been open to the public on the size and sources of its funding, so no one can assess its ability to give assistance to the permanently cash staved sports fraternity of national associations and individuals.
On the contrary FIFA’s annual subvention and other help to national affiliates has been public knowledge from the very first disbursement.
The GOA invariably pops up with assistance for teams and individuals but whether it can do more or less, only the insiders know. The circumstances surrounding its Olympic Solidarity funding for competitors’ training is also a sore issue which is seemingly deliberated behind an iron curtain.
So, whether the IOC dishes out a million US dollars or less per year for Guyana’s prospective Olympians is anybody’s guess. The IOC’s recent disclosure of a US $ 500M million hand out to affiliates, has only added fuel to the fire here.
Under Yassin, the GOA has done some measure of good that has shown up the previous administration. The decision a few years ago, to finance a lengthy training stint for distance running champion Cleveland Forde in Kenya and shorter stints for two male sprinters including the current 100m champion Rupert Perry in Jamaica, was unprecedented .
The GOA’s numerous education programmes for officials are a plus as well,
But more could have been done under the current president’s watch.
Athletics, the Olympics marquee sport, has repeatedly suffered from not only lack of financing for overseas competition, facilities here are woefully inadequate.
It seems no one in the association gave thought to ending the athletes’ torture of having to train on a rutted, archaic grass track at the National Park.
A novel idea of negotiating with the relevant authorities to build an all -weather track at the Park, which has the dimensions for the required 400 metres, specifically for training, would’ve gained the GOA endless kudos.
In light of the GOA’s decision to spend multi-millions of dollars to build a new headquarters complex, it surely has the resources to fund nothing more than a multi-lane training track.
If not, a re-adjusting of its priorities relative to its new headquarters, for the track, would’ve earned much admiration.
Also, amateur boxing, traditionally one of the country’s strengths, has dropped into the doldrums, success-wise for much too long.
Thirty-six years after the sport won Guyana’s lone Olympic medal, our pugilists cannot even qualify for the Olympics, much less challenge for more than Michael Parris’ bronze in Moscow.
Yet, no evidence of help for the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) in acquiring better trainers, for competitors, like was had from Cuba in Trotman Daley, whose input in the 1970s took the sport to the next level, or funding for regular international exposure, has been forthcoming form the GOA.
As should be known, National Olympic Committees must not be primarily blamed for lack of a country’s success at Games, the individual national ruling bodies of respective disciplines and Government, is where the buck stops.
In Guyana’s case due to meager resources from the said sources, the GOA is expected to help more than normal.
The reported unwillingness to allow the Guyana Sport Shooting Association to become an affilaite, if true, is cause for everyone involved to hang heads in shame. If three vice presidents are serving at the same time, it is added reason for adjustment to the association’s constitution to correct every burning issue elucidated in this space and in other media.
Transparency to the public by the GOA is sorely needed and surely IOC president Thomas Bach would be alarmed if apprised of the local body’s operations.
It is not likely Yassin wrote the constitution and must not be fingered for every GOA shortcoming. Like other presidents prior, he is benefitting from a flawed system, but ought to be worried that under his watch, progress in the arenas has regressed after 19 years.
Based on his recent uptick of gifts to associations this year, close to the end of his term, a practice highlighted among a raft of questionable acts by IOC member delegates in the HBO TV Real Sports with Bryant Gumble programme recently, Yassin is likely going for another term.
But if the president does not agree that an overhaul of the GOA’s operations is needed, he and his executive are undeserving of another term in office.
