PM’s Proposed Game-Changing Play: It’s About Health & Wellness

Prime Minister Mia Mottley has used the launch of this year’s Prime Minister’s Cup football tournament to appeal to young athletes to take their health and wellbeing seriously.

Against the backdrop of a high rates of noncommunicable diseases here, particularly among young people, the Prime Minister stressed the need for greater emphasis on teaching young athletes the value of preserving their health and wellness while seeking sporting opportunities.

Mottley said that while young Barbadians were interested in pursuing international sports such as football and cricket on a professional level due to the substantial financial incentives for players, they must also be interested in living healthy lifestyles if they wish to capitalise on such opportunities.

“There are too many people who approach sports without approaching it from the perspective of wellness and fitness. That has to change in Barbados,” she told those gathered at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex for Wednesday’s launch. “We need community by community, to talk with our young people, from seven, eight, nine, ten, and even the ones who are teenagers now, and explain to them why their diet and why their fitness, and why the things that undermine fitness, like alcohol and smoking, will not help them if they intend to be a serious athlete.”

In highlighting the need for a change in approach, the Prime Minister emphasised the importance of community engagement in educating young people about the impact of diet, fitness, and harmful habits on their athletic potential. She urged stakeholders within sporting disciplines to impart the significance of health to younger individuals, contending that in many cases, the athletes were their worst enemies.

“The very thing that you want which is opportunity, who is denying it? Not a stranger, but yourself to yourself. That has to be the message that goes out there,” she stressed.

Mottley underscored that wellness was a lifelong habit, and those who developed it early had a better chance of sustaining it. She also expressed hope that the tournament would help change the way athletes approached health and wellness, enabling them to reach their full potential.

“If this tournament achieves nothing else, but to change the culture and ecosystem surrounding how our sporting people prepare and sustain themselves and make themselves capable of being the best that they can be such that they go to the next level,” the Prime Minister said, “then I will say hallelujah.”