IS IT TIME OUR ATHLETES CHECK THEMSELVES?

Chairman of the RJR Group Gary Allen made an eyebrow-raising statement earlier this week that I think sends a message that all is not right in athlete land.
The Chairman revealed that the media group, the primary sponsors of the JAAA’s Sportsman/Sportswoman of the Year Awards, is considering withdrawing its sponsorship from the annual awards that recognise the accomplishments of our local athletes.
He claims this came about following the disrespectful behaviour of some of the island’s top athletes at the most recent awards, and prior to the event, a rumoured boycott by some of the track and field athletes in a mystifying protest of guest speaker 400-metre world champion Sanya Richards, Jamaican by birth but who represents the United States of America.
According to the RJR Chairman the behaviour of the athletes was disappointing in that the group spends millions of dollars staging the event as well as flying in and putting up athletes at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel.
The ‘disrespectful’ behaviour Allen says included the late arrival of recipients of the respective athlete of the year awards.
It also included the hour-late arrival of an athlete booked at the hotel. In one other reported slight against the sponsors, one of our primary athletes, after arriving late at the function, was seen walking around with her shoes in her hand, and when an opportunity arose for her to greet the RJR Chairman, extended her elbow to him.
Such behaviour is not only unbecoming, it is downright rude.
The reality is our athletes are a reflection of society’s deterioration and the disappearance of values, etiquette, and social graces. However, our multi-millionaire athletes have managers; managers who are supposed to help them make the transition from relative poverty and obscurity into the world of fame and fortune; managers, who are also supposed to be aiding the holistic development of the athlete.
I find it quite intriguing that these very same athletes would not exhibit this kind of behaviour when they are invited to international awards ceremonies.
Is it because they have no respect for the local administrators and the people who helped lay the foundation for their success?
We often hear that Jamaica does nothing for its athletes but expects much in return but is this really true or just a myth spouted by the athletes and their management teams to justify their selfish behaviour?
I will just mention the Boys and Girls Athletic Championships without which many of our talented athletes would never have a stage on which to perform enabling them to get scholarships and to be seen by potential sponsors. I’ll stop there.
What is also interesting to note is that Jamaica’s lesser known athletes are not the ones showing the disrespect. They are the ones who are at the award ceremonies on time even though they know that they will not win awards but they do appreciate the fact that they are being recognised for their contribution to sport.
It is these athletes for whom I will grieve if there are no sponsors for the event which will most likely mean that the awards ceremony will disappear from the landscape like so many other events of its kind.
Maybe that is what is needed. After all, if the athletes dont seem to care why should anybody else? Or, maybe its time for the athletes to check themselves and realise that the behaviour they exhibit not only slights the sponsors and the JAAA, it also slights the Jamaican people whom they represent. If they have lost sight of this fact, let me just say this, if it was not for Jamaica they would have no home to represent, no colours to don.
If that happens, who does it hurt the most? Think about it.