In my previous Column carried in The News newspaper dated 12 November 2022, I took time to address what is undoubtedly a thorny issue in St Vincent and the Grenadines, the financing of sport.
Little did I know then that less that one week later, we would have had a case before us that speaks directly to the several issues we raised in our previous Column, promoting me to pen a second part to it.
The case of the Swimming Association
A news release from the St Vincent and the Grenadines Swimming Federation (SVGSF), dated 15 November 2022, read, in part, “The 30th OECS Swimming Championships were held November 11th to 13th in St Lucia. Countries participating were Antigua, Grenada, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Vincent and St Martin. We congratulate Antigua on their first win as the overall Champions of OECS Swimming.
“Team SVG faced financial constraints as we did not receive the typical support we have gotten in the past from the Government and the National Lottery. As a result we were not able to take a full team of 34 swimmers and this meant that we could not be competitive in the team event aspect of the Championships. However, our individual swimmers were very competitive”.
Perhaps, more than anything else is the fact that over the past years of attending the annual OECS Swimming Championships, the SVGSF has received funding support from the National Lotteries Authority (NLA). This time around, however, the organisation was not even graced with the courtesy of a response to its request of the NLA.
According to the release from the SVGSF, they received some “financial assistance from the SVG Olympic Committee” that allowed them “to take 24 swimmers (12 males and 12 females)” to the Championships in neighbouring St Lucia.
Performance
The SVGSF took time to reference its achievements over the years of its existence, particularly in relation to the annual OECS Championships. “Eleven years ago, SVG swimming won a total of 4 bronze medals by two swimmers and we were very pleased at that time”.
At last week’s Championships in St Lucia, with a total of 24 athletes, “Team SVG brought home a total of 72 medals which included 17 Golds, 26 Silvers and 29 bronze medals. In addition, our relay teams won one gold, 3 silvers and 6 bronze medals. Twenty three of the twenty four Team SVG swimmers brought home medals”.
Clearly, at the OECS level, our swimmers have been highly competitive. Not surprisingly too, Vincentian swimmers have been able to win medals at the annual CARIFTA Swimming Championships, on rather frequent basis.
While the sport has not yet produced a medallist at the level of the major multi-sport Games and World Championships in which we have participated, the sport ranks second to athletics in terms of successes at regional and international competitions, gaining credibility amongst the sport’s fraternity.
Additionally, it was the leadership of the SVGSF, Stephen Joachim, that led the charge on the international federation for the sport, FINA, to utilise some of its resources to facilitate development across the entire aquatic family.
Looking back – origins, growth and development
Swimming is a relatively new sport in St Vincent and the Grenadines, having had several attempts at getting started.
In many respects, the sport’s current standing in this country is, in large measure, due to the commitment and persistence of Rickydeane Alexander.
This country first participated in swimming at the Olympic Games of Sydney, Australia (2000), with Teran Matthews and Stephenson Wallace respectively. The country was also at the Olympics in Athens, Greece (2004), when Donnie De Freitas (son of Donnie De Freitas, the former President of the NOC) was the lone swimming participant. He was a student athlete studying and training in Cuba. In 2012, swimming was again at the Olympics in London, UK, represented by Tolga Akcayli, who had been training and residing abroad.
Interestingly, the aforementioned experiences came even though St Vincent and the Grenadines did not even have a 25m swimming pool.
The local swimming body fell apart after having gained access to the pool at Shrewsbury House in Rathomill, the services of a coach from Grenada, Michael Davidson, and a botched attempt at expanding said facility.
In the absence of a formal organisation, Alexander moved around literally from one swimming pool to another, encouraging children and their parents to get into the sport. Wherever anyone was willing to allow him to use their pool to training children, he went and conducted sessions. He also persuaded parents to allow his athletes to travel to competitions hosted by some of our neighbouring island-nations.
When interest in swimming was revived, the pool at Shrewsbury was completed but a little short of the requisite 25m. It took another few years before this was adjusted and attendant facilities constructed.
The revived interest earned the support of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Olympic Committee that led to the provision of several important equipment and a six-month programme with Dave Farmer leading a Development of a National Sports Structure (DNSS) programme sponsored by Olympic Solidarity.
The persistence of the leadership of the local swimming fraternity eventually allowed access to Shrewsbury House as an important annex to the pool.
The SVGSF has twice hosted the annual OECS Swimming Championships but has participated in every edition since the local body became fully established.
Success breeds success. The SVGSF has been attracting young children into the sport. It has not been nor is it an easy road to trod. The challenge shave been numerous.
Advanced training has been accessed, from time to time, at Camps, mostly in Florida. This has been an expensive proposition, a fact that has limited the number of athletes able to attend and reap the immense benefits to be derived.
It is an extremely challenging feat for swimmers to attain international elite status training and competing only in St Vincent and the Grenadines. The international federation’s shift to join its counterparts in advocating ranking points as the main mechanism for qualifying for major competitions, including the Olympics, puts additional financial pressure on the leadership and participants of the sport.
Financing Vincentian sport
I am back where I started in the previous Column dated, 12 November.
There is no national policy in St Vincent and the Grenadines that adequately addresses the thorny issue of the financing of sport.
The same politicians who appear to conveniently hasten to the airport when teams that did not have the benefit of their financial support, return with medals indicating the success of the nation’s athletes, show no consistency in respect of garnering an understanding of the fundamental requirements of sport, let alone, elite sport.
The foregoing should come as no surprise given that there does not appear to be any government minister who has enough of an understanding of an depreciation for the positive impact that sport can have on the dynamics of the national economy.
The light is obviously missing from the tunnel of darkness that is ignorance of what is happening on the global scene.
Some time ago, at the launching of candidates for the ULP at Calliaqua, the Prime Minister of this country gave out some of his books to the candidates. It is alleged that he commented that it is important that they read.
The truth is that they all need to be reading constantly if they are to understand the fundamental changes taking place in the global environment.
Sport careers are a reality in today’s world and many nationals wo take sport seriously enough can make it through to the elite level, given financial support from their respective governments and attendant agencies.
The tagline of the NLA remains support for sport and culture. Unfortunately, we have never had any sort of accountability from that institution that declares to the Vincentian masses, including the players of their games, what proportion of their income, in any year, goes to sport and what to culture.
There are lotteries around the world that are clear in their support for ‘good causes’ and they offer appropriate transparency.
No one is accusing either the government or the NLA of wrongdoing. Instead, what is being recommended is transparency in respect of where exactly does sport feature in the broader goal of national development and what does this translate into in terms of financing of sport.
