Warning that struggles lie ahead for territories within the sporting arena, President of the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC) Keith Joseph says the time has come for his member organisation to be recognised as the “most important sporting body” for the region.
Joseph pledged continued advocacy on behalf of its 26 members and two associate members, as he called for an end to the “discriminatory” voting system regarding the Pan American Games and the Central American and Caribbean Games (CACGs).
“In the Americas, the major challenge is for us to end the weighted voting system that discriminates against those countries that have not hosted the Pan American Games and the Central American and Caribbean Games,” said Joseph.
“While the statutes of PanAm Sports allows for associate members, there is as yet no mechanism in place to facilitate such membership. We must continue to lobby for PanAm Sports to effect such a mechanism,” he declared.
Joseph recalled that one of the organisation’s founders, Steve Stoute, has been instrumental in ensuring that territories without national olympic committees due to their colonial status, were included in some regional organisations and their athletes compete in some games.
However, he cautioned that some of those territories were still coming up against strong resistance.
“Unfortunately, efforts to have the aforementioned territories benefit from similar recognition and inclusion in PanAm Sports and the Pan American Games, have been met with unfortunate resistance. Rest assured that the struggle will continue,” he warned.
Joseph was addressing CANOC’s 21st annual general assembly, which was held at the Barbados Hilton Resort on Sunday under the theme Beyond Possible.
Established in July 2003, CANOC is a non-governmental member organisation that is made up of national olympic committees, Commonwealth Games associations and non-governmental governing bodies of national sports organisations.
It has as part of its mandate, to promote, develop and protect sport and the olympic movement in the region.
Joseph told the gathering that despite overcoming some of the challenges, there was still a lot of work to be done as sports take centre stage “in a hot bed of crises”.
“There is today, an unmasking of sport. The insidious side of sport is now being laid bare, for all the world to see. The challenges pending are therefore innumerable but I guarantee you, not insurmountable,” said Joseph.
“Today we live in an environment that is in a state of flux in virtually every aspect – economic, political, religious, ethnic, social, sport and cultural – and one simply has to spend a few minutes watching world news to garner an understanding of the state of the world as we have come to know it,” he said.
“Despite all of the claims in respect of the power of sport, we are constantly reminded that like everything else in life, it too, has its dark despicable side that threatens to allow the untrammelled pursuit of economic gain to derail all of the positive values that we hold dear,” said Joseph.
He suggested that CANOC was in a position to take on the challenges that lie ahead, through greater collaboration.
“We are agreed that the time has come for CANOC to be duly recognised as the region’s most important sporting body, committed to work with governments, CARICOM, the OECS Secretariat and The University of the West Indies, to firmly establish a true Caribbean sports culture, that caters to the systematic sport and physical activity development from the cradle to the grave,” he said.
“History will not absolve us if we fail in our efforts at the inculcation of all that is positive in sports, building a Caribbean solidarity and indeed, genuine Caribbean unity. Ours is an historical trajectory, imbued with the incredible energy of our peoples through the years. Ours is an amazing responsibility to lift our spirits, holding each other’s hands and reaching ‘Beyond Possible’,” he said.
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