I remember being at the CARIFTA Games in Bermuda in 2004 and seeing Usain Bolt smashing the world junior 200m record; it was obvious we were watching a future champion. That’s what I want people to be able to say: ‘Yes, we saw him first at the Caribbean Games’.”

Progression Platform
Bolden is an ambassador for the biggest sporting event in the region in 2009, the inaugural Caribbean Games, which his native Trinidad and Tobago hosts from 12-19 July. More than 1500 athletes from 26 nations compete across five separate disciplines – boxing, tennis, athletics, netball and volleyball (beach and indoor) – at what is the Caribbean’s first multi-disciplined sports event.

The former world 200m champion sees the event as a way of unearthing the region’s rough diamonds and providing them with a platform on which to shine, before they progress to the highest level of competition.

“That’s exactly what it should be, a stepping stone to the very top level,” Bolden says. “It’s a showcase for those who have the talent to be identified and make a mark for themselves. For some time it has been the case that you can be the best junior around but that does not mean you’re ready to step up to the Olympics. That is a huge leap, you need something in between.”

Jamaican sprint queen Grace Jackson, who competed in three 100m and two 200m Olympic finals between 1984 and 1992, agrees.

“We want to be able to showcase our talent and show what we’re made of,” says the woman who took Olympic 200m silver behind America’s Florence Griffith Joyner in Seoul, 1988.

“If you look at Europe they have their European Championships and Asia has the Asian Games. It’s a natural step. It brings a next rung of competition which was long overdue. We have regional competition at junior levels but, until now, nothing on the senior circuit.

“It would give athletes the opportunity to test themselves between the junior and senior levels; that first taste of international competition before being thrown into an Olympic or World Championships.”

Grassroots inspiration
As well as providing a showcase for current talent, the Caribbean Games seeks to inspire the region’s next generation of sporting superstars. “We want to motivate young sportsmen and sportswomen to aspire to international achievements by exposing them to the best the Caribbean has to offer in each of these different sporting disciplines,” says Francis Williams Smith, Chief Executive Officer of the Caribbean Games 2009 Local Organising Committee (LOC). 

“When you see something tangible, such as Richard Thompson sprinting; the Cuban volleyballers and boxers; the Jamaican netballers; the top tennis players from Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad; as a young person you see that and say, ‘I can do that too’.

“That inspirational effect is very much a part of what the Caribbean Games is all about. Once youngsters are exposed to international standards of competition, and see it taking place, it becomes accessible, something within their realm. We want to bring home to the young people that ‘can do’ approach.”

Bolden, recalling his feelings as an 18-year-old at the Barcelona Olympics, says seeing top-class competitors at close quarters can only bode well for the region’s sporting future.

“Most young kids have only seen their heroes compete on the TV; the Caribbean Games allows them to see them in their own backyards. That can only be inspirational. I remember the feeling I had when I went to my first Olympics in 1992 and I was standing alongside the likes of Linford Christie and Frankie Fredericks,” says the first double sprint champion in World Junior Championships history (100m and 200m, Seoul 1992).

To ensure that this firsthand experience could be enjoyed by as many youngsters as possible, the ticketing emphasis was focused on the young. Not only that, the LOC engaged in a number of initiatives designed to fire the imagination of schoolchildren. Chief among these was the distribution of over 50,000 Caribbean Games 2009 exercise books (aimed at 8-10 year-olds) which included games-themed crossword puzzles and brain teasers.

The games have also been linked to a number of socially-sensitive campaigns such as anti-smoking, AIDS and child safety, with sporting heroes like Richard ‘Torpedo’ Thompson, Trinidad and Tobago’s double silver medallist from Beijing, being used to get the messages across.

Regional strength & unity
Though it is undeniably a competition, the Caribbean Games is being seen as a symbol of regional unity and a way of forging an ever stronger bond between the nations.

“This is all about the Caribbean coming together, and it’s a celebration of that,” says 58-year-old Williams Smith, who is also a keen road runner.
“Sport and music are the biggest two unifying activities in the region and I think the Games is symbolic of the wider integration that is taking place among the people of the Caribbean.”

To enhance the Caribbean flavour, the Olympic torch concept has been borrowed and given a regional twist. “We’ve got the symbol of the games, a Moko Jumbie, on a torch run with a difference, as we’ve used the Caribbean’s native flambeau instead of a torch. We wanted to establish a tradition in having the ‘Flambeau Run’ from island to island ending up in the host nation.”

Anything that promotes regional harmony gets Bolden’s vote.

“Competitiveness regionally is naturally strong but sometimes we let those few hundred miles of water separate us and create a divide when really there is not a lot of difference between us, so any event such as this where we can come together as one region in a spirit of commonality, under one flag if you like, I will always support,” says the man whose three bronze and one silver make him the region’s third most prolific individual Olympic sprint medallist of all-time.

Jackson, who is also an ambassador for the games, feels the contest’s competitiveness will help the region as a whole.

“I think that we have so much strength in terms of individual countries and individual sports that this will allow us to come together and showcase those talents,” she says. “If we come together with these individual strengths and compete, then collectively we can raise the level of those sports across the region. We will be strengthening ourselves. It will highlight areas of weakness and help focus development for the future.”

Background to the event
The Caribbean Games 2009 were five years in the planning and even longer in conception.

“The gestation period has been a long one because we live in an area where you don’t have significantly large economies,” explains Williams Smith.

“You really need a synergy amongst all the stakeholders and we’ve had that with CANOC (Caribbean Association of Olympic Committees), the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee and the T&T Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs. They all shared a common view of what could be achieved and carried it forward from an idea within the regional Olympic movement to something tangible.”

From Trinidad and Tobago the games move to Cuba in 2013 and Jamaica in 2017, on a rolling four-year cycle in the year following each Olympic Games.

Though this is a ‘mini-Olympics’, the idea is to keep the costs distinctly non-Olympic. With that uppermost there will be three core sports (from a list of five) chosen for each games to ensure continuity but, that withstanding, the sporting disciplines will always be based on the host nation’s facilities. Trinidad’s lack of an Olympic-sized swimming pool, for instance, accounted for the omission of a swimming event at these games.

“We wanted to keep the games manageable; they were never going to be Beijing,” says Williams Smith. “The focus in the Caribbean Games is the athletes, not the building of structures. Everything is geared towards the athletes and their comfort and that will not be compromised. Getting the accommodation, transport, catering and volunteers right is what is important – they are essential to the proper functioning of all games.”

Larry Romany, president of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee, backed this assertion when he said: “With 1500 athletes from 26 countries coming, as hosts, we in Trinidad and Tobago, are happy to be judged not on the athletes that came, but how well the athletes who came enjoyed the experience.”

Trinidad & Tobago Legacy 
Not that Trinidad and Tobago missed the opportunity to upgrade its facilities. Infrastructural development alone came with a price tag of TT$60 million, but Williams Smith says a lot of this is investment for the future.

“The Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs saw that in order to attract world-class events to your country you must have world-class facilities,” he says, adding that T&T was making itself very marketable in this regard. “We recently hosted the Cricket World Cup; we have a huge database of experienced, security-validated, volunteers; we have derived synergies from Trinidad’s recent hosting of the 5th Summit of the Americas in terms of the security, accreditation and validation process; we have expertise in project management and transport organisation.

“This is a legacy we have taken on, that we have enhanced and are leaving. This database of competency will be available to access here in T&T and the wider Caribbean for those hosting events in the future.”

Another aspect of the games the LOC is emphasising, and which has legacy implications, is that of community outreach. The games were spread across the twin islands with athletics and netball in Port of Spain; boxing in Woodbrook; indoor volleyball at St Augustine; beach volleyball in Chaguanas; and tennis in Tobago.

“We’re leaving a legacy, a platform from which regional and international events can be launched. The upgrading and enhancement of the facilities is a springboard for future development both of the venues and the sports they represent,” says William Smith.

Getting a Good Start
Sprinters react on the ‘B’ of ‘Bang’, boxers go from the bell but, whatever sporting analogy you prefer, it was important the Caribbean Games got off to a good start.

“As the first hosts, we had to set the tone for the quality of the meet; how we all wanted it to go forward,” says Bolden. “It was important that the quality of the performances lived up to the standard of competition regionally, such as a Pan-American Games, especially when you consider how well the Caribbean athletes performed at Beijing.”

Jackson, who nearly became a Jamaican national netballer before opting for track and field, says it’s important now to put down a basis for growth. “This was the first one so we wanted to start at a smaller level, position ourselves, and grow from there. In the future we want it to become a big international event and that is certainly achievable.

“Legacy-wise, from the first games, I would like people to speak about excellent organisation and great performances, comparable with anywhere in the world. That speaks to the quality of the delivery. When the losers come away and say, ‘Boy, this was great, I want to come back next time,’ then you know you’ve done something right.”

It is perhaps fitting to leave the last word to a man for whom the success of the games has become all-consuming in recent months, LOC chief executive Williams Smith.

“This has been a blueprint for future events; we wanted to set the bar and set it high; excellence in organisation and administration; great comfort levels for athletes; great performances; break-even financially.

“But beyond that, the Caribbean Games is a special concept for the region and I am proudly Caribbean. I see it as a vision for youth, a symbol of unity, a celebration of regional sporting excellence and a demonstration that the Caribbean has the capability of staging multi-sports games to international standards.”

Caribbean starts to watch
Roniel Iglesias Sotolongo
Boxing (lightweight), Cuba
Age: 20 years
Record: Won 2005 Cuban flyweight title aged 16; 2006 World Junior Lightweight Champion; 2008 Olympic Bronze medallist (light welterweight)

Emilio Correa Bayeux
Boxing (middleweight), Cuba
Age: 24 years
Record: 2007 Pan American Games Middleweight Gold; 2008 Olympic Silver medallist (middleweight); son of Olympic Champion Emilio Correa Sr.

Elvis Contreras
Volleyball (Wing-spiker), Dominican Republic
Age: 25 years
Record: 2006 Pan American Volleyball Cup Most Valuable Player, Best Scorer and silver medallist; 2008 Pan American Volleyball Cup Best Scorer. Represented DR from 2003-present.

Simone Forbes
Netball (WD, C, GA), Jamaica
Age: 29 years
Record: Represented Jamaica 1998-present in five different sports (netball, football, softball, basketball and volleyball); 2002 Commonwealth Games bronze; 2003 World Netball Championships bronze; regarded as one of world’s best GA.

Richard ‘Torpedo’ Thompson
Athletics (100m, 200m, 4x100m relay), Trinidad & Tobago
Age: 25 years
Record: 2008 NCAA double gold medallist (100m, 4x100m relay); 2008 double Olympic silver medallist (100m, 4x100m relay); 100m PB 9.89 seconds; 200m PB 20.18 seconds.

Renny Quow
Athletics (400m), Trinidad and Tobago. “Jamaica Invitational Track and Field 400m Gold May 2009.”
Age: 21 years
Record: 2006 World Junior Championships Gold; 2004 CAC Junior Championships Gold; PB 45.04 seconds.

Darian Wesley King
Tennis, Barbados
Age: 18 years
Record: 2007 Barbados Nationals – U16 and U18 winner; St Lucia Coca Cola ITF tournament – U18 winner; 2009 ITF Barbados Grade 4 Tournament winner; ranked in junior ITF top 200.

What do you think?
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