The T&T Olympic Committee (TTOC) will officially evaluate and discuss the performances of all of T&T’s Olympians at the London 2012 Games at an executive committee meeting early next month. TTOC secretary general, Brian Lewis, said yesterday that the TTOC will receive a compilation of reports from the team managers of the six sporting disciplines in which T&T was represented at the London Games which were: Athletics, boxing, sailing, swimming, shooting and cycling. According to Lewis the reports will include analyses of each athlete’s performance during their period of competition in London, in order to determine areas of improvement to determine the way forward for Rio 2016 Olympics.
“The TTOC is all about accountability. We have a systemic process to go through after the completion of any games whether it be the Olympics, the Pan American Games, CAC and Commonwealth Games or any of the other games that the TTOC is in charge of overseeing. So the work of the TTOC is an ongoing basis, it doesn’t just all stop after the Olympics.” “This year we were represented in six sports, so we will have six reports from the team managers who would also receive inputs from some of the athletes’ coaches. The reports will contain the team manager’s analysis of each athlete and the entire team as a whole, and based on that they would also make recommendations on what can be done differently in the future to achieve better performances.”
In stating that the targets for the 2016 Brazil Olympics in Rio de Janeiro will also be discussed at the executive meeting, Lewis revealed that the team fell short of the TTOC’s target for London by just two medals as they predicted a total of six medals for the local team. However, one of the TTOC’s expectations was met with the winning of a gold medal.
“We will discuss the targets for this year and 2016 and we already have a skeleton project for 2020. This year, the TTOC’s target for London was six medals with at least one gold medal, we weren’t sure from which discipline it would come, but we knew we wanted at least one gold medal.” For the Rio Games, the TTOC has placed the expectations even higher including two gold medals and representation in at least two team sports.
“For Rio 2016, our target is eight medals with at least two gold. And of the eight medals, we want 50 per cent to be won by women. In 2016 we would also like to be represented across ten sporting disciplines, with two of them being team sports.” After the executive committee meeting, Lewis stated that another report will be presented to the TTOC’s general council at another meeting soon after in September, where a final summary on the Olympic team would be given.
By Shernice Thomas
Source: www.guardian.co.tt