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Cricket and football have traditionally been the headline-grabbers in Trinidad and Tobago sport. National football team performances, whether good or bad, would often be the “talk of the town”, naturally taking back-page prominence in our daily newspapers. At one time, even Colleges League Football would have massive crowds and the level of coverage to go with such popularity. Cricket, of course, goes beyond the boundary in this part of the world, the cultural and social significance of this sport uniting the region in ways no politician could. The dominance of the West Indies team in the 1980s added value, attracting sports fans and non-sports fans alike to radios, televisions and newspapers to follow the exploits of our beloved regional cricketers. World-class performances through the years from T&T track and field athletes earned the sport the respect it deserves and the headlines to go with it. A concerted journalistic effort to keep track of the country’s top athletes, at home and abroad, has kept John Public properly informed about T&T’s best-performing sport. This is not open for debate. Track and field is responsible for 15 of the 19 medals earned by T&T on the world’s biggest sporting stage, the Olympics. The country’s sporting success, however, has not been limited to track and field, cricket and football. There are many other sports that have flown under the radar. Thankfully, the achievements of their best performers have not gone unnoticed. Roger Gibbon, Gene Samuel, Njisane Phillip and, most recently, Nicholas Paul have put T&T in the conversation about the best track cyclists on the planet. They have all put their names in the headlines with world-class performances on the boards. With Paul and Phillip currently at the UCI Track World Championships in Santiago, Chile, and the men’s sprint finishing tomorrow afternoon, there might well be big cycling headlines. Yesterday’s Express Page 40 story, “George dominates at QPJC Tournament”, was a reminder that there are other T&T athletes who have excelled, successfully raising the level in sports that fly under the radar locally. Through their achievements, their sports gain prominence via headlines. Christopher George is one such athlete, becoming T&T’s first Olympian in the sport of judo when he represented the country at the 2016 Rio Games. At Tokyo 2020, Gabrielle Wood made it back-to-back Olympic appearances for T&T. There were also two Olympic outings for T&T in table tennis, both from the late, great Dexter St Louis—first at Atlanta 1996, and then at Beijing 2008 at the age of 40. For many years, St Louis and his stepdaughter, Rheann Chung, kept table tennis in the headlines, winning five Caribbean senior singles titles each. Another table tennis player, 16-year-old Chloe Fraser, is on an upward trajectory, grabbing headlines consistently as she keeps her eyes firmly fixed on her Olympic goal. Like Fraser, T&T’s young badminton players have an Olympic example to follow. Debra O’Connor made history when she competed at Atlanta 1996. Here’s hoping her legacy inspires a second Olympic appearance for T&T in the sport of badminton.
