Ashley Kelly, Athlete Representative, Panam Sport Commission Board and BVI Senior Athlete (400m & 200m) reports on first meeting of the year
My birthday, March 25th, was a day filled with exciting experiences. I was fortunate to travel to San Jose, Costa Rica for the Sports Development Commission meeting, the first meeting of the year, and my second attendance since I was named an Athlete Representative for the Panam Sport Commission board. I arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica at 1:00pm in the afternoon, and by 4:30pm I was in my first meeting. There was no time to be wasted as we were only in Costa Rica for less than 48 hours.
Finalizing the Tokyo 2020 Development Camp was on the agenda this year. The Camp is designed to help athletes who qualify for the Tokyo Games travel to Japan up to ten days before the opening of the Village and use Olympic standard facilities.
The Camp will provide an opportunity for smaller countries with low funding to send their qualified athletes over to Tokyo early so they can become acclimated with the time zone change and ensure that the athlete has every opportunity to perform optimally during the competition. The intent of the Camp is to help level the playing field in competing against much larger countries with funding for elite facilities.
Since the Virgin Islands’ average attendance at the Games is about 4-5 athletes, the territory is eligible to take advantage of the initiative and attend a prearranged camp before Tokyo 2020.
Sport Development
As an Athlete Representative, I have the opportunity to sit in on all the Sport Development meetings and provide useful subjective insight into situations that many executives look at objectively. Organizations have to pay careful attention to their “bottom line,” and make strategic decisions, but it is vital to take into account an athlete’s point of view because these decisions directly impact us athletes and our ability to prepare, train and compete in major games.
The trip wasn’t all work and no play; it concluded with a beautiful dinner at Costa Rica Olympic Committee’s property. The Costa Rica OC’s property was a gorgeous estate once owned by a Costa Rican drug lord, seized by the government and given to the Costa Rica OC to use for offices, an event hall, weight lifting facility, and open grassland.
My own President of the BVIOC, Mr. Ephraim Penn, joined me at dinner. I recently learned that he is also a member of the Panam Sports Commission for New Events which is currently working on the inaugural meeting of the Panam Junior Games in Cali, Columbia in 2023.
I traveled out to Miami at 6 am the next morning and resumed training for the opening of my upcoming season, energized by the brief but enlightening trip.
Being a member of the Panam Sports Athlete Commission is an honor, and I am elated with the opportunity each time I get an assignment or correspondence from the Board. Through this experience I’ve made new relationships with sports executives, I’ve learned a great deal about the business of sport, behind the scenes of the events we athletes compete at, and the numerous strategic decisions made to further opportunities for athletes to compete in the Panam region.
