2008 – The year of the Olympics

5

Conclusion
The International Olympic Committee will, effective 2010, host Quadrennial Youth Olympics. Not all of the sports on the existing Summer Olympics Programme would be contested but several will. Plans are afoot to ensure global representation and every attempt would be made to return to the de Coubertin concept of a Global Sports Festival where the positive values associated with sport would take precedence. Emphasis would be on participation and less on competition. No records would be established and education and culture would be integrated into the two-week affair. This would allow many youngsters from St Vincent and the Grenadines an opportunity, while still youths, to experience the Olympic atmosphere and to be encouraged to stay clean, love sport and espouse its positive values making them better persons in society.
The Vincentian sports fraternity must work diligently in shaping today’s youths and encourage their participation in sport. The decline has to be harnessed and children allowed once more to see and experience the joy attendant to participation in sport; parents must be integrated into their children’s playtime.
Our sports leaders must do better if it is to receive support from the public and sponsors.
New and innovative ways must be found to attract new people at all levels of the sport and to motivate those already involved to strive after loftier goals.