The NOC in celebratory mode

In 1982 the then President of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Amateur Athletics Association, Lennox Adams, having recognised the great pain that many Vincentian athletes experiences by reaching the top of their sport and being unable to attend and compete at the quadrennial Olympic Games, convened a series of meetings with the intention of establishing a National Olympic Committee (then called the St Vincent and the Grenadines National Olympic Association – SVGNOA). The likes of Cecil Blaze' Williams and Parnel Campbell were at different points involved in the process helping along the way with the constitutional and attendant processes.

IOC Affiliate Status

Unfortunately however, until the time he left to pursue studies in medicine (August 1986), Lennox Adams had not been able to complete the process of securing membership of the IOC for the local organisation.

The IOC insisted that to access affiliate status, the local NOC would have to ensure that there were five national sports associations affiliated to it, all of which must have had affiliate status with their respective international federations, IF, and in good standing with them. At the same time the IOC required that at least three of the five mentioned above would have had to be sports that were included in the programme of the Olympic Games. At the time the NOC had among its membership, athletics, bodybuilding, boxing, cycling and netball, not all of which were in good financial standing with their respective IFs.

Former Minister of Sport, Jeremiah Scott, came to the assistance of the fledgling organisation in 1986 by having the Government meet the affiliation fees of three of the five national sports organisations involved in the process. The necessary paper work was done and in the early part of 1987 the SVGNOC was officially accepted as a full member of the IOC. In November of 1988 the SVGNOC was accepted as a full member of the Central American and Caribbean Sports Organisation, CACSO, the organisation responsible for the Central American and Caribbean Games, the Pan American Sports Organisation, PASO, responsible for the Pan American Games, and the Association of National Olympic Committees, ANOC. The SVGNOC also became the official representative organisation of this country at the CGF.