Belize’s Inaugural Sports Summit Demands Long-term Answers

Belize has no shortage of sporting talent, but talent alone will not produce champions. For two days, the country’s first National Sports Summit is challenging athletes, coaches and administrators to look beyond the next competition and focus on building a stronger sporting future. Government officials and one of the world’s most accomplished athletes delivered the same message: Belize must identify its talent, invest in its development and create the support system athletes need to succeed internationally. Shane Williams reports.

 

Shane Williams, Reporting…

There was a different kind of energy inside the Belize City Civic Centre today. Instead of the roar of a stadium crowd, it was the sound of a country beginning to ask a very important question. What if Belize fully invested in the talent it already has? Prime Minister John Briceño challenged everyone in the room to see themselves as part of the solution.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“We must improve conditions across national sporting system. Government cannot do this alone. Associations and federations cannot do it alone. Schools cannot do it alone. Our success will depend upon partnership among government, sporting organizations, schools, coaches, communities, athletes, parents, and the private sector. Each has a role to play, but we must truly understand that whilst each has a role to play, we must never allow this role to cause us to become insular. Our individual responsibility must be seen to be a part of building a holistic system where resources are shared for the greater good.”

 

Belizean Olympian Marion Jones delivered an emotional address telling the room that Belize does not lack athletic ability. What it lacks, she says, is investment and infrastructure to take that ability all the way to the world stage.

 

Marion Jones, Former Olympian

“ Ten years from now, I am sixty-one years old, and somewhere in the world, a Belizean athlete has just qualified for an Olympics final. And I am not watching from my living room in the United States. I am right here in Belize beside you all. Businesses have put a huge screen in the national stadium, and Belizeans are coming from every district, from the keys and the villages, and the stands are filling because tonight, one of ours are competing..”

 

Her words landed because they were not about finding some future generation of superstars. They were about the athletes and coaches Belize already has. The young sprinter waiting for the right coach. The basketball player who needs the right nutrition guidance. The swimmer, cyclist, footballer or volunteer coach who needs the resources, sports science and support to make the jump from promise to international podium. And that is where Sports Minister Anthony Mahler says this summit must be different. The goal is not simply to have another talk shop but to leave with a strategy that everyone can embrace and one that can guide Belizean sports development for years to come.

 

Anthony Mahler, Minister of Sports

“We’re trying to create this coalition between the federations, the National Sports Council, the Olympic Committee, and the wider community. And so that is why we’re creating a policy and a strategy that will drive us for the next five, ten years. That is the only way you can continue to develop a nation. That is the only way you can continue to develop our athletes. If that – if we put consistency, if we put enough resources behind them but also the athletes have to want it. To me, everything is out there. If you want to shoot a ball better, if you want to run faster, you can just press a button now and find all the training you want. So there shouldn’t be any excuses from an athlete standpoint. It has happened all over the world. Marion Jones just spoke about the small studio apartment that her mother and herself used to live in, the hour-and-a-half drive to trainings and competitions and so you have to give that effort. You have to – and we have to create the systems in the schools as well to allow us to identify talent at a very young age.”

 

For years, Belizean athletes have been asked to compete with the world and most times without the resources the world provides. This summit is putting a new challenge on the table to government and all stakeholders to stop asking how far Belize can go with what it has and start asking how far Belize can go if we invest in what we already have. Shane Williams for News Five.

 

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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