Mahler Touts New Momentum for Belizean Sports

The speeches have ended, but the real work is just beginning. Belize’s first Sports Summit brought sporting federations and government officials together to discuss better facilities, stronger athlete development and new ways to connect sports with tourism. Tourism Minister Anthony Mahler says the summit created greater unity within the sporting community and exceeded his expectations. He also sees aquatics as an emerging opportunity for Belize. But can that momentum produce lasting results?

 

Anthony Mahler, Minister of Sports

“We hope to have swim pools and stuff like that swimming pools so we can start to build those areas. We have two swimmers right now – two of them based in the United States. But I think we have to build that culture here in the country as well. We’re on the coast, we have many rivers and I think a lot of our people don’t swim. We want to get more people in the water feeling safe.”

 

Shane Williams

“What’s your take on the results of the sports summit?”

 

Anthony Mahler

“To be honest, it exceeded my expectation. All the discussions all the camaraderie that we built with all the federations and the associations, having one alignment in terms of where we want to go with sports and where we want to go with sports tourism. I think we will see some rewards down the road. But I’ll be honest, compared to the summit that I – or the congress that I just went to in Mexico ours was much better.”

 

The National Sports Summit attracted influential regional sports leaders, including Panam Sports Secretary General Jimena Saldaña.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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