Athletes sacrifice years of their lives striving to compete at the very highest level. They dream of taking part in the Olympic Games and World Championships.

Due to a hectic schedule and a well documented issue that has generated significant and heated debate, I had little private head space in recent days, so much so it would have been easy to feel a sense of despair.

Thirty-one delegates comprising National Sport Organisation (NSOs) members and executive together with council members of the T&T Olympic Committee (TTOC) agreed to a good governance commitment when the TTOC held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) at Olympic House last Saturday.

The President, said historian Paul Johnson, is a lonely person in times of crisis. The weight of leadership at times cannot be shared or passed off on anyone else.

What are the barriers to new thinking and innovation and how do they impact on sports’ growth? I believe there has been an absence of self-belief and clear thinking that has left local sport in no-man’s land in respect of policy makers and those who influence policy.

If Brand T&T is to become a world class global sport brand the challenge is to move from talk to action and to do so, not someday but now.