Dec. 15, 2008 — The Olympics held a magnificent athletic competition in Beijing, China, last summer. Now, after a short pause to celebrate and rest, the quadrennial preparations begin again for the games of 2012 to be held in London.
And the preparations are no less pressing here in the Virgin Islands than anywhere else in the world.
The territory entered the international sports world in 1966, and has sent a team to every Olympics since then with the exception of the 1980 games in Moscow, which were boycotted by the United States and many of its allies.
This year the islands sent a team of seven to the games in China. But that was then. A new cycle has already begun, and the V.I. Olympic Committee is preparing to send athletes to regional and international competitions in preparation for the the 2012 games.
Last week the committee — made up of representatives of 22 internationally sanctioned sports federations from the island — elected its executive committee. Four members were re-elected to new four-year terms: Hans Lawaetz, president; Angel "Chico" Morales, secretary general; Leonard Bonelli, treasurer; and Lyn Reid, vice president from St. Thomas. Tom Guthrie was elected vice president from St. Croix, his first four-year term on the board.
The day-to-day work of finding and training athletes is handled by the federations, which run the gamut of athletic competition from track and field to shooting, yachting and wrestling, according to Guthrie, who spoke to the Source Monday morning.
The islands' IOC coordinates their activities and provides funding for training, traveling and coaches.
"We have about 15 or so athletes receiving monthly stipends," Guthrie said.
Guthrie is president of the V.I. Cycling Federation, a group he's been active in since 1991.
"More often than not, it's people [that] work their way up from the local federations" who end up on the Olympic committee, Guthrie said.
Though the islands' athletes come from a smaller pool, they still have to meet the same international standards, Guthrie added. It's not enough to be the best in the territory — the athletes have to meet times and scores and standards that place them among the very best athletes in the world.
"For a small place, we do pretty well," he said.
Between now and the London games, there'll be plenty for local athletes to focus on, beginning next summer with the first-ever Caribbean Games in Trinidad and Tobago. Other competitions on the calendar for which island athletes will prepare include the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, the 2010 Caribbean & Central American Games in Puerto Rico, the first Olympic Youth Games in Singapore in 2010, and the 2011 Pan American Games in Mexico.
Then, the quadrennium will have run its course and it will be time for another Olympics.
According to the committee's website, Peter Holmberg won the silver in yachting at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Two other men born in the territory won medals while competing for the U.S. team, both at the Munich Olympics in 1972: Sugar Ray Seales (gold, boxing) and Paul Hoffman (silver, rowing). Christiansted native Tim Duncan was a member of the bronze-winning U.S. basketball team at the 2004 games in Athens.
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