Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) president Brian Lewis called on athletes to use the Reward and Incentive Framework of the National Policy On Sport (NPOS) to invest in themselves to improve their performance and personal growth.
Lewis was speaking at the launch of the 2017-2027 64-page document launch at the National Racquet Centre Wednesday.
"This is an important landmark in T&T sport and one that I sincerely believe will be looked back by historians as a defining moment for sport in T&T, " Lewis said, " I urge the athletes to appreciate that the taxpayers in T&T feel they have a say now. So it is important that we all note together that you are representing the people of T&T."
Lewis added athletes should reflect on that representation by demonstrating ways they can make a contribution back to their communities and by how they deport themselves.
"Most importantly, whether and how you take the opportunity and reinvest in yourself to ensure you succeed and bring excellence," Lewis explained.
Lewis thanked the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs for the NPOS, calling the launch a historic landmark for sport in this country.
The president of the Trinidad and Tobago Commonwealth Games Association also framed the new NPOS as an opportunity to chose between fear of failure or optimism for the future national sporting endeavours.
"It is either it's a false hope because of the disappointment some of us would have gone through or it can be the dawn of a new era and full of hope. High Performance and Elite level Sport in the 21st century is no longer about doing it as recreation or doing it as an after-thought
Therefore what the new NPOS does is it provides a framework that seeks to bring an important principle of good governance with the values of predictability, transparency and accountability," Lewis said.
He added the new policy shields athletes from the bureaucracy and subjectivity of the implementation of the previous national sport policy that ran from 2002-2012.