Statistical indictment of Guyana’s Olympics poverty

Aug 17, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,

As a born and bred citizen of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, it pains me to see quadrennial after quadrennial in our national newspapers, radios and televisions reporting the exploits of the Olympians from other countries except our own. Oh; how I wish to see the day when our athletes’ images be placed in the local, regional and international newspaper.

Guyana has been attending the Olympics since 1948, that’s sixteen Olympic Games or a total of 68 years, and we have only managed to secure a sole medal. Many thanks to Mr. Michael Anthony who would have secured the country’s first and only Olympic bronze medal at the Moscow 1980 games in the men’s bantamweight boxing bout (yes thirty six years ago).

As outlined in Table 1, look how dismal Guyana has been performing at the Olympics. We are tied with Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago for the most Olympics attended by any Caricom country and look at our medal standing. Even those countries that went to fewer games have been doing far better than us. Eight games attended by Grenada and they have produced a gold and silver medal.

Table 1: Guyana medal tally in comparison to our Caricom neighbors.

What have successive governments been doing to assist our athletes? What is Guyana noted for internationally? Who are our global ambassadors?

Table 2: Guyana number of Sports, athletes and Events in comparison to our Caricom neighbors at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Apart from Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana has a higher population than all the other Caricom countries. Despite this fact, most of the smaller countries have fielded more athletes than Guyana. It is a travesty to see our country not represented the way it should at these games.

Why the Sports Department does not identify athletic talents at an early age? At school we have the inter-house, inter-school, branch and national, these are some great avenues to start. Perhaps we should have some form of campaign to encourage current and perspective athletes. One of Caricom’s counterparts is promoting the campaign “Ten or More Olympic Gold by 2024”. The Prime Minister of that country along with his entire cabinet has pledged to donate 5% of their salary for the next two years with an effort to make the campaign dream a reality.

I refuse to believe that we do not have the caliber of athletes to represent our country at world events. I believe greater investments are required. I am therefore calling on the Department of Culture, Youth and Sports to change this dismal cycle of poor or non-representation of our sports men and women at regional and international meets. One can only imagine the pride and joy that will come to Guyanese on seeing the Golden Arrow Head hoisted and the national anthem sung at the medal ceremony at the Olympics! Come on people let us all collaborate to make Guyana great!

Davone Toney

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