The Tribune

The Olympic Games in Brazil are 116 days away and preparations for Team Bahamas are already well underway. Brent Stubbs, The Tribune’s Senior Sports Reporter, starts the countdown with a look at how the Bahamas Olympic Committee is working to give the country’s athletes the best possible competitive chance in Rio in August.

The Bahamas has been competing at the Olympic Games in 1952 in Helsinki, Finland, and the Bahamas Olympic Committee (BOC) is eagerly anticipating the country’s participation in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, in August.

The BOC, formally the Bahamas Olympic Association, is expecting to have representation in more than the three disciplines already confirmed, with the latest coming in a non-traditional sport of rowing.

Wellington Miller, serving as the fifth president of the Olympic movement in this country, albeit it the first under the new BOC banner, indicated that they have aggressively been preparing the athletes, coaches and officials for the future.

“We have been getting involved in the various sporting organisations and assisting them in trying to make things one big Olympic family,” said Miller, who also doubles as the president of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Bahamas. “This year is an Olympic year and so everything is geared towards Rio and we are well on the way of making the necessary preparation for the Games.”

The BOC received some welcome news on Thursday when it was announced that rower Emily Morley had been awarded a wild card for Rio after she placed tenth at the FISA Olympic Qualification Regatta for the Americas in Valparaíso, Chile, last month.

Morley, a second generation Olympian following in the footsteps of her father David Morley, who represented the Bahamas in swimming at the Games in 1984, will become the first Bahamian rower to compete at the Olympics.

Her participation has now pushed the number of disciplines for the Bahamas involvement in the Games, scheduled for August 5 to 21, to three as rowing joins the traditional sports of athletics and swimming, where there are already a number of qualifiers. The BOC, however, is hoping that boxing and judo could also be included in the package deal before the deadline in July.

Athletics, which has played the greatest part of the Olympics success story with ten of the 12 medals won at the Games - four gold, two silver and four bronze - will again be leading the charge for Team Bahamas. Swimming, which is still looking for its breakthrough on the podium, is not too far behind. Both sporting bodies - Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA) and the Bahamas Swimming Federation - will hold their Olympic trials in June.

And according to Miller, the BOC will be playing a major role in assisting the athletes in their bid to come home and make the qualifying standards, if they haven’t done so at the respective trials.

“We want to make sure that these athletes take part in the Olympic trials so that the Bahamian people can see them before they go to Rio to compete,” Miller stressed. “It’s only going to be beneficial for the athletes from both the sponsors’ perspective and the fans anticipation of the Games, especially for those who can’t or won’t be going to Rio.”

The Olympics is normally a huge investment and Miller said it’s not something that they can put a dollar value on right away. But he said they have been pre-paying a lot of bills to ensure that Team Bahamas not only get to Brazil but will be placed in the best environment for them to compete in when they get there.

Miller follows a line of presidents that include Sir George Roberts, who served as the initial president from 1952 to 1957, Robert Symonette (1957-72), Dr Norman Gay (1972-73) and Sir Arlington Butler (1978 to 2008). Having taken office in 2008, Miller said now in his second four-year term the Bahamas Olympic movement has transitioned from the BOA to the BOC in keeping in compliance with the International Olympic Committee, the parent body of the worldwide movement.

“We’ve progressed fast as we try to keep up with the times,” said Miller, who served as a vice president from 2004 to 2008. “The public is more aware of the Bahamas Olympic Committee than before. It’s not that before it wasn’t done, but it’s just that everything is more open and we have a group of executives who are more innovative in getting things done.

“I think because of this executive team, we participate in the public a lot more. We put on more events for the public and a lot more things are happening, so the BOC name is more identified. Over the next few months as we look forward to Rio, the public will be hearing a lot more from the BOC. We will have our name out there more than ever before.”

While Roy Colebrooke, one of the vice presidents and the chef de mission for Team Bahamas, and secretary general Romell Knowles are currently in Grand Bahama assisting the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture and the BAAA with the staging of the National High School Track and Field Championships, Miller will be leaving on Wednesday to serve as a guest lecturer at the University of Missouri in the United States the next day when he will participate in the University’s ‘Professor for a day Programme’. Miller, who was invited to the programme by Bahamian Course Lecturer Dr Lincoln Marshall, will address students in the University’s Department of Hospitality on ‘the future of safety and security management for sports’.

Miller, a former senior Immigration Officer who has extensive experience in sports security matters, intends to brief the students generally on the international Olympic movement, including challenges facing sports, the press and anti-doping as well as the future of safety and security management. He said it’s a great achievement, not just for him but the country in general.

As for the future, Miller said he still has more goals on his agenda before he leaves the movement. “I want to see the movement break ground on our own building so that we can have a common place where the federations throughout the Bahamas can come and have their meetings us or hold their own,” he said. “We want to provide a comfortable sporting environment, so once we can get them we can create more efficiency so that we can bring everything under one banner.”

Working along with Miller in the current administration as they prepare for the “Road to Rio” and beyond are Romell Knowles, the secretary general assisted by Kathryn Dillette; treasurer D’Arcy Rahming, assisted by Clarence Rolle; office manager Al Dillette and vice presidents Roy Colebrooke, Joseph Smith, Iram Lewis, Derron Donaldson, Cora Hepburn and Robert Butler.

• The Tribune is following Team Bahamas in the build up to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and will be reporting from Brazil this summer. The ‘242 on the Road to Rio series’ will appear every Monday and Thursday. Comments and responses to bstubbs@tribunemedia.net