The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

ONE of the longest tenured presidents of any sporting association in the Bahamas, with a term which spanned nearly four decades, will add another milestone to his illustrious list of achievements.

The BOC will honour past president Sir Arlington Butler for his involvement in sports, and particularly his work as president of the Bahamas Olympic Association for 36 years, at a black tie gala event scheduled for 5pm November 1 at Government House.

He will be the first Bahamian to receive the Pierre de Coubertin Award, one of the most highly regarded awards doled out by the International Olympic Committee.

The De Coubertin medal is a special decoration to those persons “who exemplify the spirit of sportsmanship in Olympic events or through exceptional service to the Olympic movement.”

The medal was inaugurated in 1964 and named in honour of Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the IOC.

According to the Olympic Museum, “it is one of the noblest honours that can be bestowed upon an Olympic athlete.”

“Sir Arlington will receive one of the highest awards from the International Olympic Committee. He will become the first Bahamian to be awarded the IOC’s Pierre de Coubertin Award, who was widely recognised as the founder of the modern Olympic Games,” current BOC President Wellington Miller said.

On the local front, Butler will also receive a new award created by Miller and the BOC.

“Sir Arlington will also become the first Bahamian sporting hero to receive The Bahamas Olympic Committee President’s Award, “ Miller said. “I have established this new President’s award as a means of recognising special and outstanding contributions to the Olympic Movement in The Bahamas and there can be no one more deserving than Sir Arlington as the first recipient. His influence in sports has not just been in The Bahamas, but it has stretched across the region and on the wider international sporting stage, based on the compliments and congratulations we have received for him on this occasion.

In the region, we have six presidents and other executives from regional Olympic committees who are coming to The Bahamas to help honour Sir Arlington.”

Butler was the fourth president of the then, BOA, and for many years was considered “the country’s keeper of the Olympic flame.”

Throughout his tenure, which began in 1972, he has been active at many levels of the International Olympic Organisation, working within The Bahamas and the region so that athletes with Olympic potential receive the benefit of good training as well as the best in training equipment and facilities.