The Barbados Olympic Association (BOA) has set a target of six medals at the 2020 Olympic Games and two proposals for a long-term athlete development programme are now before the board.
In an interview earlier this week from Moscow, where he was attending the 14th IAAF World Athletics Championships, director Cammie Burke told SATURDAYSPORT that the association had received two proposals, one from Lieutenant Colonel Trevor Browne and Dr Rene Best and the other from Canadian sports consultant Dr Colin Higgs.
Browne, the president of the Barbados Table Tennis Federation, unsuccessfully challenged BOA?president Steve Stoute last year. Best is a sports medicine practitioner and is in Moscow as team physician, while Higgs is a former professor of sports and physical education and is best known for Canada’s Long-Term Athlete Development Movement.
Burke said the BOA would meet to determine which structure to implement but, ultimately, it would form the basis of preparing athletes to meet the goal.
“We will put a programme in place, not for 2016, but more targeting the next Olympics. Not that we are neglecting the Jason Wilsons or Ryan Brathwaite in 2016, but the main intention is to make sure we have athletes for 2020,” Burke said.
“We only had six athletes at the last Olympics. I can’t see us having a bigger team than that. In order to improve that, we have to put a programme in place where the focus of attention is on the athletes.”
Track and field, swimming, cycling, judo and the triathlon have been identified as the key areas for development.
Burke said the Olympic Association would be receiving $170 000 per year from Olympic Solidarity up to 2016 and most of that money would be used to start the programme.
The BOA hopes to have the programme rolled out by yearend and is putting the administrative structure in place, but it will require massive input from the national federations.
The Table Tennis Federation has already asked for a coach from now to next year to prepare its athletes for the Junior World Championships.
The Barbados Judo Association will be hosting a championship that will be a qualifier for the Central American And Caribbean Games in 2014 and is also expected to submit a proposal on how it will prepare its athletes.
The long-term athlete development programme will feature training, preparation for competition, nutrition and competition, among other factors.
Burke could not give a cost without proposals from the federations but said the BOA would be seeking the assistance of corporate Barbados to help fund it.
