It is perhaps deliberate of me not to have jumped on the
bandwagon of post London 2012 to heap praises onto our athletes.
Personally, it is because we have, as a nation,
said so much and not really done enough to truly lift up, honor and cherish the
enormity of the herculean task we ask these men and women to do when they put
on the Green Gold and Black on the world stage. It is truly an honor to
represent ones Country and it gets particularly hard when you have a bulls-eye
on your back and the rest of the planet is gunning to serve our super beings a
dose of kryptonite.
While I wasn’t personally
there in the London Olympic stadium, all my friends who had the privilege of
witnessing our men and women shell dung London, tells me it was a sight to see
people of all class, color and nationality stand in reverence of our
awesomeness; on and off the track. For those who know, Miss Lou would have
said, “Wi Likkle but wi Tallawah”. If you don’t know, you better ask somebody
and of course you could Google it… lol.
Earlier I spoke about
bulls-eye and I wasn’t trying to be cliché or colloquial by any stretch of the
imagination, in fact I was very serious. What was Carl Lewis, Dick Pound and
NBC trying to achieve by downplaying the achievements of our Jamaican athletes
in no lesser arena than that of the games of the Olympiad. How much more mean
spirited can you actually get. Lewis is
just a Dumbo and doesn’t qualify to be mentioned really, but what the hell was Dick
(Pound) thinking, wasn’t he the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), if
he had these concerns why voice them after the games and not before? Aren’t his
utterances libelous? I hope they are and I hope we have the balls to take
action sooner than later, it’s about time we stand in defense of the men and
women who represent this proud nation against all foes – foreign and domestic!
Then there was NBC, yes the
great American media conglomerate that decided because the United States were
again getting a whooping in the sprints by little Jamaica, they refused to
televise the events live or even in primetime television. Just imagine, NBC
paid billions for the broadcast rights of the games and opted not to air it for
their largest audiences because little Jamaica was running rampant in London…
Talk about David slaying Goliath!
I need Jamaicans home and
abroad to take proper note of the power of Brand Jamaica and the value of your
culture because the rest of the world, whether they are for or against us, is
wide eyed and taking notice.
Now let me go back to where I
started, we keep talking about the prowess and spectacular performances of the
Jamaican athletes, it is time for action by the Government and the private
sector to get on board or shut up for good, the days of tokenism through big
celebration parties and one off advertising campaigns ought to be over and done
with. Sports in Jamaica still lack serious development, which requires
investment in infrastructure, human resource, facilities, serious marketing and
a solid commitment to making excellence the standard for achievement.
What the adoring world
doesn’t know is how we produce this prodigious talent year on year with a poor
cadre of facilities, no real national sports policy, a struggling national
economy and no major investment by the private sector. Well my answer is
simple; talent, hard work, dedication and a commitment to excellence by the
athletes and their coaches. Thats it, nothing more or less!
That said, my argument is
this, the powers that be in Jamaica must seize the opportunity to rub salt in
the wounds of the Carl Lewis’s and Dick Pound’s of this world and continue to
force NBC to block us out of their broadcasts, by pumping far more into sports
development and open their eyes to the bigger picture. We must treat our athletes (not just Bolt)
like the true superstars they are and give them the support they need to
continue to work hard and inspire more youngsters coming up that they too can
stand atop the medal podium one day.
Here are some big ideas for
us to stew on and put our money where our mouth is:
- A national policy for the
development of sports in all major discipline – January 2013
- Four mini multi-sports
facilities complete with gymnasiums, running tracks, football fields, hard
courts, aquatic facilities, spectator seating, parking – June 2014
- Creation of a centre of
excellence in speed training that is marketed to the best athletes around the globe
to come to Jamaica for off-season and/or specialized training.
- We are yet to realize the
true value of GC Foster College as an institution and yet we continue to pay
lip service to it; is there no international investors that want it; heck we
could give to them free in exchange for them to re-develop the institution and
it’s infrastructure and make it marketable internationally.
- Three major international
track & field meets per year; we already have one in Jamaica International
Invitational, Gibson Relays can be upgraded similar to Penn Relays and there is
no reason we cannot have a Diamond League/Grand Prix Meet if we seek a
partnership with North America and strike the right sponsorship deal – February
2014
- Commence a plan to make a
serious bid for either the 2023 Commonwealth Games and/or 2021 World Track
& Field Championships. In between it would be great if we could get the
World Netball Championships and the World Junior Championships to return to our
shores.
- Racers and MVP Track Clubs
need major help to manage the influx of local talent because there is already a
huge bottleneck. Why not give major corporations that want to invest in the
development of new Clubs/Institutions long term tax breaks to invest in this
development, it is a win win situation for all the stakeholders.
- Why aren’t the best Golfers
on the PGA tour not coming into Jamaica every year for a tournament, isn’t
Tryall and Caymanas still two of the best if not the best courses in the
Region.
Just thinking about this
makes my skin tingle with excitement even though our sports administrators and
the private sector is fast asleep at the wheel, the economic and social
windfall from a coordinated and carefully organized plan like this would be
unimaginable. Just to name a few of the upsides: Job creation, reduction in crime and
violence, creation of opportunities in sports as a career, sports tourism,
creation of sports medicine wing to the University Hospital or better yet,
building of a brand new sports medicine hospital, expansion of the service
industry, redevelopment of the Kingston water front and let’s not forget sports
men and women need recreation too; Casinos would be a touch of brilliance.
Let’s get to work Jamaica and
stop this small thinking, we need big ideas and bigger dreams… soon the
naysayers will realize what the rest of the world has long seen and accepted;
we may be small in size but we are big of heart aka “wi likkle but wi
tallawah”!!!
One Love!!!
