Realism and Vincentian sport
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous on all aspects of life as we had come to understand it. While we are all analysing the long-term impact of the pandemic on the several aspects of life, the world of sport has witnessed so many changes that wea re uncertain of when we would be confident that a new normal is in place.
Uncertainty in sport during and after the pandemic has led to some very strange and otherwise overly simplistic decisions, some of which are also decidedly comic. For example, when historians get themselves settled, they would be referring to the Summer Olympics of 2020 but dated 2021. Leaving them to insert the anecdotes to explain the seeming contradiction.
But the Olympics are not the only ones that have engaged in such pronouncements. Far too many international sports federations have followed suit, probably anxious to show their own lack of initiative and creativity.
The fact that many international sports federations (IF) have fulfilled their commitments to host their several championships rather than cancel them has been influenced more by their commitment to their sponsors than to the athletes, although we are not likely to hear any admissions to this reality. Leave it to the critics to bring this to the fore, over time.
Athletes have been working diligently at keeping themselves fit, in the hope that when competitions occur they are ready to compete. Unfortunately for some, their respective countries have had lengthy lockdowns and stringent laws to ensure compliance, that many athletes are only now getting into top shape, as an increasing number of countries drop earlier restrictions.
In St Vincent and the Grenadines there were no lengthy lockdowns. There were restrictions, some of which seemed to be in stark contradiction to health norms. Some sports kept going, using creative ways to facilitate training and competition. Not surprisingly, therefore, the performances we have been seeing in competitions at the local, regional and international levels are a reflection of which sports were being practised in a manner that left their athletes appropriately prepared.
Performances
Vincentian athletes have had mixed results during the year, thus far. Athletics has been the most successful, winning five medals at this year’s Carifta Games in Jamaica and one at the 4th edition of the Biennial NACAC Open Championships in Freeport, Grand Bahama, The Bahamas.
During the year many of our developing athletes have attained personal best performances, to such an extent that in some cases, the junior athletes have been delivering better performances that those senior to them
For our track and field athletes, the competitive season is at an end. Now, several of the young ones will be heading off to scholarships in Jamaica and the USA, opportunities that are intended to help them improve both their education and sporting development. Handal Roban has already taken up residence at the Penn State University on a full scholarship that lasts four years. Some are heading to Jamaica with the same objective.
Swimming has once more witnessed medal winning performances of some of its athletes and numerous personal best performances.
Some of our cricketers have gained selection to the West Indies team, with the latter, itself, enjoying significantly inconsistent performances.
Our Netballers won the OECS Tournament in Dominica but has been facing an uphill struggle to deliver in the other tournaments in which different teams have been engaged.
Many of our other sports have fared relatively well at home and in occasional competitions abroad, but consistency has been lacking and there seems to be major challenges preventing them from getting to the leadership, even at the OECS level.
Swimming’s competitive year is far from over. Next week there will be the Junior World Championships in Peru. In November there will be the annual OECS Championships and December will feature the World Championships in Melbourne, Australia. Our local athletes may not attend all of the aforementioned remaining competitions, but they will be afforded the opportunity to determine participation for themselves.
For several sports, the competitive season is not over while for others there is no specific season.
There is therefore need for each association to carefully plan its quadrennial programme in tandem with that of its respective IF and the continental and regional bodies that are all part of their sporting family.
Potential, development and challenges
There is little doubt that St Vincent and the Grenadines, like so many countries around the world, is replete with immense sporting potential. However, being in possession of talent potential is, in and of itself, far from enough.
This country has produced many athletes in different sports. Some have been particularly outstanding.
While we are generally critics of sport the country’s population, by and large, have recognised those who have taken their potential seriously and have been willing to grow and develop to the extent possible, given their circumstances.
Many of our scholarship winners in athletes have not returned home. This is a personal decision and must be respected. However, we do need former athletes to retain some important connections, especially as mentors, to athletes who have potential and are at home, trying to make sense of the development pathway.
Some of our athletes in different sports who have represented SVG at some time in the past, do not always give back to the sport. This bodes no good.
Perhaps we spend too much time engaging in back-biting that it is difficult for several former athletes to work together. This hampers development.
Some may genuinely claim that they wish to help but that they are turned away by existing leaders who immediately perceive them as threats to their extant status with the particular sport.
There is also the matter of standing in the sport and in the eyes of the Vincentian public. The desire to be perceived as the best coach, sometimes, the only knowledgeable one, or the best technical official or administrator, is a model that seems to thrive in our country. This translates into a debilitating defence of one’s ‘turf’ at every turn, even at the expense of others who are eager to be of assistance and to learn through education and practical experience.
Several attempts at establishing a national coaches association in SVG have all failed as a result of the aforementioned reality, the fighting over ‘turf’ and an unwillingness to learn from each other.
The existence and pervasive nature of Facebook in particular and social media in general, has led to many involved in sport at different levels, using these media to calumniate others with whom they should otherwise be working. Many engage athletes in this despicable practice creating much bitterness, acrimony and anger amongst the youths engaged in sport.
Close analysis of many of the criticisms levelled at sporting associations, here, are not entirely untrue and /or unwarranted. Unfortunately, too often, our sports leaders take the criticisms personally, assuming that the criticisms are directed at them with some sort of ulterior motive. This not always the case but remains essentially normative.
When those who are supposed to be exemplary in sport by virtue of the positions they hold and their achievements, demean themselves by being particularly destructive in their criticisms of their counterparts, either in the same sport or in another, there is little chance of them being able to legitimately and scientifically facilitate the realisation of the immense potential resident in our Vincentian youths.
Change is essential
For us in SVG, there appears to be much hesitancy on the part of several national sports associations to engage in a collective endeavour to plan, scientifically, an approach to the realisation of the immense potential that would guarantee positive results that are grounded in realism. We must all be realistic of the broader national approach our associations must take to analyse where we are as a nation and then construct an approach that, while acknowledging the individual nuances, agrees the appropriate allocation of available resources and opportunities for training and development abroad, for those deemed possessive of the capacity to elite athlete status.
What we have been doing in the past and still, in many cases, is readily accepting and rewarding mediocrity, refusing to accept reality and unwilling to engage in collective analysis, planning and monitoring and evaluation.
There may well be an unwillingness to engage in the aforementioned collective approach for fear of being exposed. However, if we are serious about genuine sport development we must plan, cut wastage and be scientific in all aspects of the work that is necessary to harness and develop the potential.
Globally, there is increasing application of science and the ever-emerging technology, to all aspects of sport. The days of the approach characterised as ‘hit or miss’, are long a thing of the past. That is not a model upon which sporting organisations can rely. Equally, scarce resources in small, open and vulnerable economies/societies demand of all of us a very responsible approach to resource allocation, monitoring and evaluation of usage and critical analysis of outcomes against inputs.
Sport is not about ‘getting trips’. Every competition incurs financial outlays.
Many should note that in the contemporary global sporting circumstance, members of national teams often demand per diems even before they have started participation but are not always eager to engage in the kind of critical analysis of performance upon return. It is also the case that even where the critical analyses take place, the recommendations are not implemented or do not yield meaningful change.
As a small country with limited resources, we ought to allow our collaboration and cooperation in sport to be exemplary, even to our politicians.
There is indeed much that is inherent in sport that teach us all, in Vincentian society, a thing or two about how to live, love each other and together, commit to the practice of working diligently together for the greater good.
