Scotland visits Mexico to talk sport

| 11/11/2010

(CNS): Cayman’s Minister of Sport Mark Scotland and Cayman Islands Olympic Committee (CIOC) President Donald Mclean were in Mexico recently for the first ever World Olympic Sports Convention. The international from was to encourage partnerships and promote the importance of sports for healthier nations. Scotland said that he welcomed the discussion between the Olympic committees and governments because true development through sports cannot be done by either one in isolation. He agreed that sports can be a very effective vehicle for the development of healthy societies and said that it was some of the best money a government can spend given the wide range of benefits which can be derived from sports.

“I hope to be able to take the discussions further with our local Olympic committee and other governing bodies of sport, to address a number of issues raised at the convention,” he said. “These include the development of long term plans for wider grassroots participation within the districts, increasing the number of volunteers in sports, the increase in the significance and quality of school sports, increasing opportunities for the development of our elite athletes and increasing the involvements of women and the elderly in sporting activities.”

Scotland added that while the CIOC enjoyed a good and transparent working relationship with government, this was not the case with all sporting federations and called on them to join the government in getting behind a shared goal to maximise the benefits of sports for the Cayman Islands as a whole. The minister said following his trip to Mexico that he will be establishing an advisory group in the near future made up of government and sporting organisations to look at a number of the issues highlighted at the convention and to discuss a strategic sports delivery model for the Cayman Islands.

Discussions during the convention centred on how governments and Olympic committees can establish better partnerships to ensure that the known benefits of sports such as the strengthening of societies and development of healthier populations can be achieved by the largest possible number of people.

President of the International Olympic Committee Dr. Jacques Rogges, appealing for better partnerships, noted that the need was even more crucial at this time when countries were grappling with the challenges of more sedentary populations. He pointed out that according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) some 60% of the world’s population did not receive the required levels of physical activity. According to the WHO some 1.9 million deaths each year are attributable to low levels of physical activity.
 

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  1. Thank you says:

     That’s nice, another trip to shake hands and pat ourselves on the back for a handful of athletes.

    If the government put all the money that they spend on sports (boys will be boys eh?) towards education, we would not have the problems we are suffering with today.  Until our leaders get a strong focus on education, our sad society in Cayman can do nothing but continue to fail.