SVGOC steps into line

The decision by the executive of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Olympic Committee to commission its Sport Information Centre and Museum, must be credited with the highest of commendations.

Located on the ground floor of Olympic House, the Administrative Centre of the SVGOC’s property at Villa Point, the Sport Information Centre and Museum is equipped with computers, projectors, artefacts and memorabilia- inclusive of uniform samples, pins, and other collectables, of St Vincent and the Grenadines’ participation at international championships.

Thus, the SVGOC is getting in line with the happenings in international circles whereby documentation and archiving are now part and parcel of sporting organisations worldwide, as they seek to preserve history.

Despite being limited as to the content material available at the new facility of the SVGOC, it is a welcome start, as things can only improve and expand as time inevitably ticks.

In its current and simplest way, the Centre and Museum can assist students with their School Based Assessments, provide a platform for students with a repository of information about the Olympic Movement, as well as track the happenings of other international sporting bodies affiliated to the movement.

Thanks to technology, the Centre presents a direct connection to the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) General Assembly, as well as their overall library access.

Additionally, soonest, the SVGOC’s system will allow access to sports information affiliated to the International Olympic Committee’s Olympic Studies Centre, and the archives of the International Olympic Committee. Similarly, PanAm Sports, inclusive of the PanAm Sports Channel.

That body of access augurs well for students from the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College who are engaged in the Applied Associates Degree Sports Science Programme.

Apart from the accessibility to information as offered by the SVGOC’s facility, they now have a conduit to be involved in research on local sporting personalities which then can be preserved for posterity and reference.

It is often painstaking that when a known sports person dies, there is little by way of paying homage to that persons as documentation of their contributions is sparse or non-existent.

Often times, it is from sheer memory that information of those persons’ prowess in sports can be relayed and published.

Unfortunately, much of St Vincent and the Grenadines’ sporting history, has been lost because of lack of documentation and archiving, and the dependency on oral preservation becomes lost, or facts distorted in transition.

The time is ripe to change that course now that the facility is there, and any effort to bolster its content would surely be welcomed by the hierarchy of the SVGOC, as well as personnel of the National Olympic Academy who holds the mandate for the administrative upkeep of the Centre and Museum.

Likewise, the NOA will endeavour to also source old photographs of former stalwarts of Vincentian sports as a means of preserving history and legacy.

National Associations, Federations and Unions also have a role to play in furnishing the facility with information on their respective history, developments and dynamics, over time.

The SVGOC itself has many publications that are useful, whilst some may need refreshing and new versions done as time has elapsed and the information gathered then would inevitably need updating.

Notwithstanding the fact that many students would have done projects, papers and in-depth research on specific Vincentian sporting personalities and phenomena, an opportunity now presents itself for them to have work stored and utilized as resource material.

The start is there, the onus is on all stakeholders to have the SVGOC’s Sport Information Centre and

Museum grow exponentially, stay with times and changes, and be the envy of others in the region.

Indeed, we are on to something that would place Vincentian sporting richness in the annals of national biography.