Government, JAAA get to work on keeping Jamaica’s athletes

TRACK AND field stakeholders, the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport and the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA), are still making their way through the fallout of having four athletes declare the intention to switch allegiance to Türkiye.

The athletes, including three medallists from the 2024 Olympic Games in Tokyo, began the process in the months leading up to the World Athletics Championships and thus took no part for Jamaica.

Olympic gold medallist in the discus Roje Stona, bronze medallist in the shot put Rajindra Campbell, silver medallist in the long jump Wayne Pinnock, and fourth-place finisher in the triple jump Jaydon Hibbert were all absent from the Jamaica’s National Championships two months ago.

According to team manager at the World Athletics Championships, Ian Forbes, who is also vice-president of the JAAA, the governing body has raised the issue with World Athletics:

“We had raised it prior to the Congress, and we have been advised that there is a working group which they put together to look at the whole matter to see how best it can be addressed.”

And the sports minister, Olivia Grange, while acknowledging that Jamaica cannot compete with the sums athletes are being offered, admitted that more can be done.

MINISTRY’S SUPPORT

“We can’t do everything, and we have done more than has been done in the past, but it is not enough because our athletes have their own personal concerns, and we can’t address all of them,” she said.

According to Grange, her ministry does as much as it can for individuals and as a collective, has put measures in place to help ease the burden on athletes.

“When matters are brought to our attention, we do what we can. We have the Athletes Insurance Plan, which is of tremendous benefit to them, and as government, we may need to do more public education to make them aware of what is available,” she said.

The sport minister also believes that corporate Jamaica also has a critical role to play.

“But I also want to make a special appeal to the private sector. More private-sector partners are coming on board, and a committee is being established where we have public-private sector partnerships to see how we can further strengthen the support system for our athletes,” she said.

Grange believes that those partnerships have a future based on initial conversations.

“And I am very optimistic based on the responses that I have had that we will be able to put a stronger and a more rewarding system in place for our athletes.”