TOMORROW will be a crucial day in the life of Canadian-born gymnast Marisa Dick as she will find out whether or not her place on the Trinidad and Tobago’s team for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil will be confirmed by the TT Olympic Committee (TTOC).
The TTOC, led by president Brian Lewis, will be staging a media conference at the Olympic House, Abercromby Street, Port of Spain and, according to a media release late Friday, the TTOC will make their decision public after a meeting among its Games Management Committee “to consider the (TTOC) response to the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) re the TTOC’s acceptance or not of an allocated place in the individual artistic gymnastic competition at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games”.
On Friday, the FIG issued a statement, signed by its general secretary Andre Gueisbuhler, which emphasised that, as far as they were concerned, Dick and not Thema Williams (who Dick controversially replaced as the TT representative at the Olympic Test Event in Rio a fortnight ago) will be guaranteed a place at the Games.
In his statement, Gueisbuhler wrote, “we confirm that Marisa Dick has successfully competed at the qualifying event in Rio and has obtained a nominative place to participate at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. This place must be confirmed by the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee as soon as, but no later than May 9 2016. Failure to do so will result in the automatic invitation of the next best ranked All- Around athlete from the qualifying event in Rio (1st Reserve). Since the qualification place earned by Marisa Dick is nominative, no name change or replacement is possible.”