Government is laying the groundwork for Barbados to make better showings at the Olympics, says Minister of Sports Charles Griffith.
During a tour of the Kilombo Emancipation Village in Haggatt Hall, St Michael, recently, he said Barbados was not maximising its Olympics potential.
“We’re looking to plan a full four-year cycle to ensure that, one, we have more than four or five athletes being at the Olympics and two, that we have more disciplines than track at the Olympics. My concern is that there are so many different disciplines that we are not even looking at . . . .
“The field events that we can, I believe, excel in are not on the table as far as sports is concerned. So, when the BOA (Barbados Olympic Association) officials return from Ireland, I will be convening a meeting with them and some other stakeholders to ensure that we can have a four-year cycle that is working for us,” he said.
Griffith said the focus would be on disciplines in which Barbados had a chance to earn a medal, though he could not say which ones those would be. He added that once these were identified, he was “sure” Government would fund the athletes involved.
The minister said he was “not 100 per cent convinced” there was anyone properly identifying talent at the National Primary Schools Athletic Championships or Barbados Secondary Schools Athletics Championships level, and this was also true regarding disabled athletes.
“One of the things that I also want to see happening in the next four-year cycle is that we pay more attention to the Paralympics because I think it is an area where we can have some athletes involved. Government is all-inclusive, so therefore we’re going to see what we can do in terms of Paralympics.
“[We have to see] how we can find a coach or identify some coaches and train them up to be the ones to work with that particular demographic to ensure that in four years’ time, we have people representing Barbados at the Paralympics,” he said.
Griffith said emphasis also had to be placed on the quality of coaching in Barbados and utilising technology.
“One of the other things that I would want to place emphasis on is that oftentimes we look at the athletes and we do not look at the officials. So if we’re going to do a holistic development of sports, we can’t only look at the athletes. We must also look at developing our officials to be participating in international events as well.
“The truth is that we need to get involved with technology. We need to move to a stage where all of our coaches are using technology to ensure that they have best practices. More of our coaches need to get involved with video analysis in terms of how they treat to practice, how they treat to the games, how they treat to looking at opponents. If we can have more of our coaches on board as far as this is concerned, then I believe that we will see better results and growth.”
The minister said it was not his intention to target coaches concerning results but stressed the need for them to be able to move to the next level.
“If you’re going to have an international athlete, you must have an international coach attached.”
To help with this, Griffith said his ministry had started a community coaching programme which would benefit all involved.
“[That] programme is seeking to put coaches within the communities to coach youngsters in the rudiments of the different disciplines that they have identified. It will provide a structural environment for those youngsters at the community level who want to be involved in sports and it would also give an opportunity to those coaches to hone their skills in terms of developing as a coach.
“It is not something that you will get overnight, but we are prepared to bring in persons to work with our coaches in the disciplines to provide them with that opportunity to scale up, so to speak.”
He also touched on the Barbados Defence Force (BDF) Sports Programme, which Chief of Staff Commodore Errington Shurland is seeking to revitalise. Griffith said he agreed.
“I’m fully in support of restarting the BDF programme. I think we would have seen the benefits of that initiative. So what is required now is for us to sit down and plan and see how best we can move forward in terms of restarting [it] because it will redound to the benefit of those disciplines involved in the process,” he said.
The BDF Sports Programme was established in 1990 and comprised cricket, football, boxing, table tennis and track and field. In September 2018, it was revealed the programme was ending, with sources reporting it was a Governmental cost-cutting measure. However, it was later learnt that the BDF had incorporated the sports programme under its operational budget.
