Stokes wants change in attitude towards sports

Four-time Olympian Dr Nelson Stokes has called for a change in attitude towards sports administration if Jamaica is to improve in its international standing. Speaking at the GC Foster Symposium on Wednesday, Stokes said that there is much more work to be done at the sports administrative level.

Stokes is an experienced figure in sports administration, sitting as the chair of the World Olympians Association’s Awards Commission and chair of the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees’ Marketing Commission. He is also the Jamaica Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation president.

After delivering his speech, Stokes explained that Jamaica has earned the reputation of overachieving in sport at the global level in spite of a lack of resources.

He said that while this is a reputation to be proud of, if Jamaica wants to become a viable sporting country, there needs to be more investment from the sporting administrations.

“One of the points I’m making is that a lot of the success that we’re seeing is from the bottom up. It’s the persons in the communities driving the success and that is important,” he said. “As good as we are, one ought not to rest on one’s laurels and say ‘We’re winning the medals already so what’s the problem’. The problem is, do we want to be excellent or do we want to accept just being good enough?”

Stokes believes that while Jamaica has been producing talented athletes, there needs to be greater involvement by the administrations to create a sustainable future in sports.

“We must always be looking for ways to improve and I think we should take that opportunity.We are blessed, and so much of our success that has been significant globally has been driven by persons from the grassroots up and I think that has been a difficult thing for a culture to recreate.

“We’ve been blessed with it and I think we should embrace that, but at the same time, there are things we have to improve at a government and national institution level. We should really be thinking hard about business models that will make sports as a career viable and I think that is where we need to spend more time thinking and developing our own solution.”

While speaking to the students the GC Foster College, Stokes explained that sports administration should be seen a real career choice to pursue.

He says that sports in Jamaica has been seen as only a pastime and a hobby, and so far, the business opportunities in the field have remained unexplored.

“The crux of my argument was that we need to move past thinking of sport as something that’s nice to do and as a real profession. We have not embraced fully the wide spectrum of opportunities available in sport. I was addressing students so I wanted to make the point that you can teach, you can do research, and on the business side, there is a whole range of things that one can do and to equip themselves to make a living from sports,” Stokes said.