Not another term, Mr Stoute

By Patricia Pinder
| Wed, September 26, 2012 - 12:01 AM

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After 16 years of being at the helm of the Barbados Olympic Association (BOA), with one Olympic medal to show and a decline in Olympic athletes from 18 in 2000 to six in 2012, Mr Steve Stoute has the intrepidity to say he is seeking “only one more term”.

I’m sorry. Mr Stoute advised we should look at his organization’s medal performance at the Pan Am and other games. Barbados gained eight Pan American medals and six Commonwealth Games medals – one gold. Trinidad gained 40 medals – seven gold, and 23 medals – six gold at the Pan American and Commonwealth Games respectively. Of course, it will be argued that Trinidad is much bigger in population.

So, if we look at another island which is just as highly developed and where the population is closer to Barbados’, say the Bahamas, the medal count is also in the double digits over the same period: 27 Pan Am – five gold, and 21 Commonwealth Games – seven gold.

The point? Education is of course a priority, as it is in the more developed Caribbean territories, but one just needs to go to our Inter-School Sports to learn that sports has always been highly regarded at the secondary school level. Here is when our young star athletes ignite and explode over five consecutive years. Apparently this is not known, or is ignored, by Mr Stoute.

To present that the reason for Barbados’ weak performance is our cultural attitude and to believe that somehow our results will be miraculously different over the next four years suggest being out of touch with modern-day youth.

We thank you for your efforts, Mr Stoute, but it is time to graciously hand over the baton. You are slowing us down, and the race is yet to be won.