SPORTS

Olympic Sailor Donald McLean at the helm of CIOC

Members of the Cayman Islands Sailing Club Executive
pose with Sr. Portillo during his visit to the Island.

Friday,  July  1, 2005

OLYMPIC sailor Donald McLean was elected President of the Cayman Islands Olympic Committee recently. He is joined on the Executive by another Olympic sailor, Carson Ebanks (Secretary General), long time volunteer sports administrator and first woman to serve on the CIOC Executive, Lori Powell (Vice President) and former Director of Sports Designate, Bernie Bush (Treasurer). A further five members join the CIOC Executive Committee for monthly meetings. These representatives are chosen from amongst the Olympic Sports members, and are Bruce Blake (Football), Dale Ramoon (Basketball), Rex Whittaker (Softball), Laurice Frazier (Swimming) and Rayle Roberts (Athletics). The full Olympic Committee meets quarterly and this organisation includes representatives from all Olympic sports represented in the Cayman Islands. These 17 organisations, who are voting members, are joined by any other interested sporting organisations, who attend as non-voting members.

The new Executive has promised transparency and communication with all the member associations. They have also promised to keep the general public up to date on matters of interest through use of the local media. Regular meetings will be held, and updated information will be provided from time to time. In addition, the Executive has published a statement on the mission and role of the Cayman Islands Olympic Committee. Some of the important aims and values listed in the statement include:

To promote the fundamental principles and values of Olympianism in the Cayman Islands, in particular in the fields of sport and education, by promoting Olympic educational programmes in all levels of schools and to encourage other programmes, including cultural, related to the Olympic Committee.

To ensure the observance of the Olympic Charter in the Cayman Islands

To encourage the development of high performance sport as well as sport for all

To help in the training of sports administrators by organising courses

To take action against any form of discrimination and violence in sport

To adopt and implement the World Anti-Doping Code

These mission statements reflect the role of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of which the CIOC is a member. The CIOC is obliged to participate in the Olympics by sending athletes to the Games, which are held every four years. In addition, CIOC has the exclusive authority for the representation of the Cayman Islands in the Central American & Caribbean (CAC) Games, Pan American Games, any world multi-sport competitions patronised by the IOC, and the Commonwealth Games.

Current events for CIOC include a recent visit from Manuel Dominguez Portillo from Cuba, who was in Cayman at the request of the Pan American Sporting Organisation (PASO) to review facilities and training in a number of individual sports with a view to assisting with facilitation and funding for elite athletes looking to compete in the CAC Games (Colombia 2006), Pan Am Games (Brazil 2007) and Olympic Games (Beijing 2008). Sr Portillo will be meeting with representatives from the various chosen sports (all individual rather than team sports) including athletics, swimming, shooting, taekwondo, boxing, sailing and triathlon.

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