President of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA), K.A Juman-Yassin yesterday said that the “buck stops with him” over the predominantly red uniforms worn by Guyana’s competitors at the Tokyo Olympics.,
He confirmed that the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and by extension the government played no role is the design of the country’s Olympic uniform which was a topic of controversy following the opening ceremony at the ongoing Games in Japan.
“The Ministry or Mr [Charles] Ramson Jr or the Government, neither of them were involved in the uniform, neither of them made any contribution towards the colour or design of the uniform”, the GOA Head said.
Acknowledging that he can accept constructive criticisms over the uniform, Juman-Yassin added that he was disgusted regarding some of the foul comments made on social media one of which stated that the “athletes would lose because of the uniforms and its presentation.”
“I deprecate that statement; I acknowledge conservative comments and questions as to the uniform, I can appreciate that persons may want to see all the national colours be part of the uniform. I apologize to those persons as it regards their disappointment and I can say in the future we will take more cognisance as it regards to colours”, Juman-Yassin stated.
“To those persons who criticise because they did not see their party colours or felt that the uniform was in support of the Government, or whose comments were divisive or not helpful to heed the political and perceived racial problems in Guyana, I offer no apology to them”, the GOA head stated.
The GOA highlighted that in the past uniforms had other colours but there little ‘fuss’ created over the matter, however, he highlighted that in the future, the GOA would consider having a competition to select the outfits.
The longstanding head of the association admitted “that the buck stops” with him as it regards to the choice of the uniforms since it was a GOA council decision to use such a design.
At the height of the social media drama over the uniforms, Ramson said that his Ministry had no involvement in the design.
He further asked, “Are we really going to allow our petty political allegiance to diminish their deserving moment of glorious achievement? Are we that selfish? We must not be and we must never be. There are times to fight and there are times to unite. Internally we may have our differences, but on the world stage we must always remember “We Are One Guyana”. Never forget that!”
Guyana was represented by seven athletes in four disciplines at the Games of the 32nd Olympiad
