THE CARIFTA GAMES AND SPORTS POLICY

On Thursday 28 March 2024, the Lyden Pindling International Airport was abuzz with young people, adolescents full of fire and hormones and excited to be heading on a Bahamasair jet to take them to Grenada for the next edition of the Carifta Games. Carifta, the free trade area of the Caribbean, is long gone and replaced by Caricom but the name is retained in the games. Those kids in their excitement would not have cared to know that Lynden Pindling, after whom the airport is named, the father of the nation, caused them to be able to enjoy the fun while they were enjoying a friendly competition in Grenada this weekend. He gave Pauline Davis, the Olympian her first pair of tennis, so says the legend.  He tried his hand himself at running when he was in school.  He turned the value of sports and competition which he learned into Bahamian public policy.  In 1977, they created the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture.  He made Kendal Nottage its first Minister. At the time Bernard J. Nottage, later the National Security Minister under Perry Christie, was the head of the BAAA, the governing body of athletics.  His successor is today Drumeco Archer and at the international level Mike Sands, a former Olympian himself. The Bahamas transformed the games, when they were first hosted by The Bahamas. Sir Lynden and the Nottage brothers were front and centre in transforming the nature of the games and making them into a regional Olympics.  It is an amazing spectacle of the flower of youth across the region and is perhaps the region’s most successful invention.  We wish all the athletes good luck this weekend.  The swim edition is being hosted by sports minister Mario Bowleg in Nassau. Prime Minister Philip Davis went down to support the athletes in Grenada.