CARICOM must own the business of its sporting brilliance

EDITOR: In the Caribbean, sport is not pastime—it is identity. We celebrate our athletes with unmatched pride, and on the world stage, from the Olympic Games to the Paralympic Games, we consistently outperform expectations. But beneath the medals and moments lies an uncomfortable question: who truly benefits from our success?

In today’s global arena, sport is as much about intellectual property as it is about performance. Broadcasting rights, athlete branding, sponsorships, and storytelling drive billions in revenue.Yet while the Caribbean supplies worldclass talent, it captures only a fraction of that value.

The example of Usain Bolt shows what is possible. By owning and managing his image, he transformed personal success into national economic value— boosting tourism and strengthening Jamaica’s global brand. Paralympians abroad have done the same, leveraging visibility into infl uence, income, and social change.

The lesson is simple: ownership matters.

So why are we not doing more?

Partly, it is structural. Global sport is controlled by powerful institutions, leaving small states with limited leverage. But the deeper issue is regional. Across CARICOM, sport is still treated as celebration rather than strategy. We invest in performance, but neglect commercialisation, intellectual property management, and sports law.

Indeed, sports law in the Caribbean remains underdeveloped. Few specialists exist to guide athletes through contracts, image rights, and dispute resolution. Too often, decisions with lifelong consequences are made without adequate expertise, leaving value to be captured elsewhere.

Beyond capacity, there are harder truths. A persistent insularity weakens regional collaboration, while inconsistent political will slows meaningful reform. We talk integration, yet act individually—missing opportunities for shared markets, unified branding, and collective bargaining power.

The consequences are even more pronounced in Paralympic sport. If “sport for all” is to mean anything, it must include not just participation, but investment, visibility, and ownership. Without deliberate support, Paralympic potential-economic and social-remains under-realised, almost waiting, as if in a Beckett play, for change that never quite arrives.

But change is possible. A unified CARICOM approach—grounded in strong IP systems, sports law development, and regional collaboration—could transform sport into a true pillar of economic and social development. It could ensure that Caribbean athletes are not just global performers, but global stakeholders.

Because the issue is not whether we can compete. We already do.

The issue is whether we are prepared to own, protect, and profit from what we create.

Until then, we risk remaining what we have long been: exporters of excellence, and importers of its value.

Rudi Daniel President National Paralympic Committee SVG.