What I want to do along with my colleague Laurence Carbon, and a few others is to establish Olympic Lifting back in the Caribbean, most predominantly Trinidad & Tobago.


WHAT IS OLYMPIC LIFTING?
I am in the process of developing a five year Olympic Weightlifting programme for Trinidad & Tobago to train future coaches, athletes and for those taking up a new recreational sport.

The training can help improve the performance of any sport as well as activities of daily life.

Olympic Lifting is a recognised, official sport in the Olympic's and Commomwealth Games, whereas power-lifting isn't. It is all about power and flexiblity. It is the fastest movement in the
Olympic Games.

We had the sport, Olympic lifting in Trinidad 40 years ago, then it died and what we want to do is resurrect it. Currently, I am the only person representing Trinidad & Tobago in Olympic lifting.

I used to lift for England, but there was too much red tape, there was too much politics. We as the senior lifters weren’t really getting a chance to go to competitions because they had this ageist policy and would only take the younger lifters to go and compete abroad.

So what I’m going to do as a senior lifter and female lifter is, once we finally get the development of the sport underway in Trinidad & Tobago is to to take creditable home-grown lifters regardless of their age and train them to represent Trinidad & Tobago on the world stage.

I am not going to discriminate against a 15 year old or a 50 year old. All I’m interested in is if you can lift the weight and combined total of the lifts, if you can do that, you’re on the team.

There is so much emphasis put on the younger lifters who will take the sport up for a few years and then drop out by the time they hit 17. And all that time, energy and effort will be lost.

When we get the older lifters, who have the time and mental aptitude which the youngsters lack, who can do the work and more, we will treat them as equals as a 15 year old. We will not judge them on their older years but on ability.

As long as they can lift the weight and do it well, they’re on the team.

Our Federation of TTOWF links with other Olympic Lifting National Federations around the
globe. See our News Page