Caribbean Olympic Leaders Converge on Guyana
During the next week the leaders the Olympic Movement and Commonwealth Sport in the Caribbean will converge on Guyana, as the latter hosts the 22nd Annual Workshop and 23 General Assembly of the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC). There is much anticipation in Guyana, ahead of this year’s meetings especially following reports that emerged from the country following CANOC’s Retreat held there in January 2025. During the Executive Committee’s stay in Guyana, audiences were held with the President of Guyana, Dr Irfaan Ali, and with some members of CARICOM, in relation to sport developments across the Caribbean and the importance of locating sport as one of the critical pillars of regional development.
CANOC
CANOC was officially established at its Inaugural General Assembly at the Jaragua Horel, Santo Domingo, 31 July 2003. This followed four years during which the region’s National Olympic Committees (NOC) and Commonwealth Games Associations (CGA) engaged in dialogue, under the institution, Caribbean Caucus of National Olympic Committees (CCNOC), on the need for a permanent organisation primarily aimed at the official establishment and sustainable development of the Caribbean Games.
In the period 2003 – 06, with the numerous challenges attendant with trying to procure a host for the inaugural edition of the Caribbean saw CANOC expand its vision and mission, to become a Caribbean representative organisation that was more deliberately aligned with the mandates and strategic priorities of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the then Commonwealth Games Federation (now Commonwealth Sport). A number of Commissions were established that have served to catapult CANOC as a key player in the global sport environment.
The Inaugural Caribbean Games was originally scheduled for Trinidad and Tobago in August 2009 but was postponed just days ahead of the official opening due to health fears about the spread of the H1N1 virus. It took another seven years before Guadeloupe raised its hand to officially host the Games in 2021. The impact of the global pandemic, COVID19, forced their postponement to June/July 2022. In Guadeloupe, last minute political challenges at once threatened to derail the hosting of the event but in a show of Caribbean unity, all CANOC members pulled together to ensure their success. Since then, however, finding a host has once more proven challenging and the leadership of CANOC has commissioned a review of the Caribbean Games and called for recommendations for their future, including the possibility of hosting in more than one country.
Importantly, there will be discussions on the number of sports at the Caribbean Games. The original intent was to have between five and seven sports. Guadeloupe had nine. The core sports are athletics, swimming and netball. Remarkably, and in a spirit of cooperation and Caribbean solidarity, Guadeloupe, as hoists in 2022, included netball, even though the sport was not part of their culture. If agreement is reached on a multi-island approach, we may find some interesting dynamics in the sports chosen and their location.
Hopefully, following discussion of the Commission’s report in Guyana, the CANOC members will agree a novel way for us to realise and sustain the Caribbean Games in the future.
It should not be lost on us that as a people, we are resourceful, sport-loving and authentically Caribbean. We are known globally for our sporting achievements, matching strides with athletes from large and small advanced industrial nations much better resourced that us. The Caribbean Games is intended to allow our Caribbean people to witness firsthand the display of their children, friends and neighbours engaged in friendly rivalry.
Critical issues
CANOC’s sojourn in Guyana next week addresses the fundamentals of the changing roles of regional and national sporting organisations of the Caribbean as they join the rest of the world in pursuit of sport development and sport for Development.
The CANOC Programme in Guyana has been extended to include an Olympic Solidarity (OS) Finance Seminar for NOC’s of the Caribbean. Olympic Solidarity is the development arm of the IOC and its programmes for the NOCs of the world affords our members access to annual grant-based activities for the development of the respective organisations, their athletes, coaches and administrators.
Over the years some of our members have not accessed the full range of programmes and grants available to them. This is one aspect of the Needs Assessment Survey brought to the fore and CANOC is appreciative of the fact that General Secretaries and the person within NOCs charged with responsibility for their respective OS programmes, have been specifically invited to attend the aforementioned Seminar.
This Seminar comes against the backdrop that CANOC, in collaboration with the University of the West Indies (UWI), with whom it has an MoU, has called for applications to its Advanced Governance and Leadership Training Course, comprising of eight 3-hour training sessions, two per month, starting October 2025 and ending January 2026. The training to be conducted via Zoom will include the topics: Theories and Principles of Governance and Leadership, Organizational analysis, Impact of major stakeholders and Governance self-assessment. Here again, there is strategic alignment with the needs identified as priority, by CANOC’s members.
CANOC can boast of its progress towards gender equity across the Caribbean. The region has always been able to boast that it did not need any IOC-imposed regulation about the percentage of women leaders to be officially included on the executive committees of the NOCs, not from International Federations to their national affiliates. History reveals our longstanding commitment to having girls and women included in the practice of sport and in the various aspects of sport development.
Today, several of the Presidents and General Secretaries of NOCs and CGAs are women and even the most cursory of analyses would reveal their competence, professionalism and proficiency, consistent with leadership and the practice of good governance. Members of CANOC will be apprised of the developments that continue to take place in respect of the movement towards gender equity amongst our membership and what it means for the region and our continuing engagement in global sports. There is no resting on laurels where this aspect of sport is concerned.
Another important aspect of the CANOC meetings in Guyana relates to the building of a Caribbean-Africa Sports Alliance, which the organisation is spearheading, and which has already gained some appeal. This initiative in sport has come at a time when Caribbean governments have finally come to an understanding of the importance of opening up relations with Africa. There have already been two Summits of the leaders of the Caribbean and Africa and from all appearances there is a level of seriousness that characterises these meetings.
CANOC is hopeful that unlike what happened with the West Indies Federation in the period of its existence, 1958 – 1962, the relations being established between the Caribbean and Africa involves the people of both geographical areas and not only the leaders of government. Talks cannot only be about reparation from the former colonisers in Europe but more importantly of building bridges of hope for the successors of those who would have been victims of the cruel slave trade and plantation slavery.
Sport has always been considered an important means of building and sustaining solidarity. The Caribbean-Africa Sport Alliance offers an excellent opportunity for sport to prove its immense potential in unifying peoples who are connected by history, however sordid that history may be.
CANOC’s relationship with the Centre for Sport and Human Rights, is into its third year and members will have the opportunity to examine developments in what remains an important aspect of sport in society. Discrimination is real and while we wish to believe that society is at an advanced stage of development, the evidence of discrimination against people of colour, of the LGBTQ community, ethnic groups, girls and women, leaves us decidedly bothered about what exactly constitutes progress.
Equally important in the Guyana celebrations would be a focus on Safe Sport. Sporting organisations need to be safe places for our children and all those who are involved at whatever level.
Safeguarding is not limited to sexual offences. It has to do with protecting all categories of participants and organisers of sport. We have to protect athletes from being overworked by their coaches and technical officials from being committed to extraordinary hours in the service of sport.
The need to protect the practitioners and organisers of sport from each other as well as from themselves has always been a concern in sport, However, what has not been done well is the establishment of appropriate policies, codes of conduct and regulations to guarantee the avoidance of predatory and other activities that render sport unsafe, at any level.
Conclusion
CANOC’s agenda of activities in Guyana for the period 14 – 20 October, seems rather lengthy and taxing on the participants. But this is a necessary stage in the development of the organisation now into its 23rd year of existence. During these years CANOC has gained international recognition.
With the growing relationship with UWI, CANOC stands poised to strengthen its foundation in the region but also to build upon this to garner greater respect and be more highly respected and engaged across the international sports community.
It is a beautiful thing to watch an organisation strive to become and sustain itself as Authentic Caribbean.
Of CANOC, we can therefore be justly proud.
