Brian Lewis, president of the T&T Olympic Committee (TTOC), has said that after years of taking flak from the national community for including professionals such as psychologists in official delegations to the Olympic Games, his organisation feels vindicated now that naysayers have come around in support of its initial stance. He was speaking at yesterday’s opening of the second annual Caribbean Sport Psychology Conference now taking place at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad on Dock Road in Port-of-Spain, hosted by the Ministry of Sport and Sanko-Fa HP (HyPower Performance) Sport and Performance Psychology.
Lewis said: “Back in the day, it was the view that taking a psychologist on an Olympic team was a waste of time and resources because everybody used to believe that the TTOC was a set of men and women going on trips—free rides. People never understood the importance of not only a psychologist, but the medical team from sports medicine to the gynaecologist. The Olympic Committee was in front of the curve and withstood a lot of criticism from you the public and the media for carrying people on trips.” He added, “It’s a real pleasure to see that some years down the road a psychologist of a T&T Olympic Committee team is now a must. We live in a society where they tell you once you have to talk to a psychologist you are some kind of weak person. We love to say ‘suck it up’ and ‘dig deep.’ Those days have long gone!
It was close to 17 years ago, said Lewis, that former TTOC president Douglas Camacho adopted a holistic approach to have the requisite on-site technical support for local athletes when away for competition. That concept, he said, continued when Larry Romany headed the TTOC and Lewis declared that it was a formula he aimed to further develop. While many of the TTOC’s detractors could not envisage the benefits to be had by the nation’s sportsmen and sportswomen, said the TTOC head, those non-believers made no adverse comments when the US Olympic Committee, as well as England and all other major countries that were serious about winning medals, did the same.“...The TTOC would have endured, but we stuck to our guns and withstood the criticisms because we were convinced we had to create the environment that was necessary to allow our athletes to succeed. It’s not how it used to be long time. There is no accident at the higher level now.
You have to have everything properly planned and this would have been highlighted in 2012 when we added to the whole preparation programme, by having a training camp in Cadiff, Wales. Again, there were people who would have commented about the expense, but credit to the Ministry of Sport. They understood the vision of the TTOC and understand where we need to be taking it, if we need to be serious.”