Boldon wants to help T&T athletes
Four time T&T Olympic medalist, Ato Boldon is at a loss for words over the performances of T&T’s female athletes at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
None of the eight females that represented T&T were able to make it further than the second round in their respective events.
“I really do not know how to explain it. I really don’t think we brought the caliber of athletes to compete and the sad thing is that I know we have the talent, it exists so why?” Boldon said.
“When I look at Kelly Ann Baptiste she looked tired,” he added.
Boldon who has been to the 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympics as part of the T&T contingent admitted: “In all my years with the national team, I have never seen the hunger and passion from our women in track that I see from the Jamaican women. I see it in Candice Scott and Cleopatra Borel-Brown, but not from the others, and that has got to be a major factor.”
No female athlete has ever won a medal for T&T in the Olympic Games.
“Four years on from Athens, we need to do something, one medal alone is not good enough, and that is the disadvantage of Richard winning a silver, if people are now happy with that alone, we cannot be contented by this,” Boldon continued.
“If this was Jamaica and they only had one medal when they returned home, they would not have accepted that, there would be many questions raised and answers would have to be given,” said Boldon.
“We have to accept that while there has been progress, what we have been doing, has not been reaping the rewards required and it is no good getting annoyed and talking about it every four years, we need to sort it out during the period leading up to the next Olympics (London 2012),” warned Boldon.
He said: “Everyone now, needs to work together. I feel it is time for me to make myself available to those in track and field in whatever way possible, so I am doing that, we need to put aside egos and do something to reverse this process of just one medal every now or then.
“The more I need to be, I will be involved, I will be setting up a base in South Florida and if it is that I can be an advisor, coach or anything that can help the team, I will,” said Boldon.
“People who have won at this level, cannot continue to be excluded, because they know about it, they have experienced it and when you have people involved who do not know that, no matter how pretty it looks, it will not succeed,” said a concerned Boldon.
Boldon, who is now a leading athletics analyst with the NBC network at the Beijing Olympics said: “If we can fix the system, then we will fix both the men and women in the sports. We need to have concrete plans and put it in writing, that is what works.” (Andre Baptiste)
