MISSING OPPORTUNITIES

I will forever to lament that so many of our athletes, especially track and field athletes, continue to miss out on opportunities to make themselves marketable and in so doing attract endorsements from global and local sponsors. Jamaica did exceptionally well in Beijing this past August forcing the eyes of the world to be on us once more.

However, I get the sense that many of our athletes and their representatives see those eyes as being intrusive rather than as opportunities to enhance their earning power. Careers in sport are short so everything happens now. Money has to be earned now because sport is fickle. Today you can rule the world and then tomorrow comes and nobody knows your name.

Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce, for example, is currently in Namibia inspiring young Namibian athletes to greater heights. Usain Bolt does lots of charitable work both at home and abroad. Meanwhile, just about a handful of others are also involved in giving back.

What I find is that many, too many of our athletes, are only focused on what they do and what they are about. There are several other Jamaican athletes – male and female – who have failed to develop themselves professionally perhaps only focusing on what they can earn on the track but what they fail to realize is that there is so much more potential to be and do more off the track.

When they go to these global championships and do well and are being interviewed by the world media, they miss glorious opportunities to be engaging and to tell the world a little more about themselves and the work they do. What comes out instead is the impression that the media is an uncomfortable distraction they would rather do without and their responses can sometimes come across as being hostile. This is happening in a time when media marketers are on the hunt for more interesting female stars to hock products from electronics to apparel. Many of our ladies possess some of the qualities marketers are looking for but they and their handlers don’t seem to be focused on capitalizing by improving themselves and making themselves more appealing.

Our athletes travel the world and meet people from different cultures every year. I would love to see them learn from these different cultures that they are constantly being exposed to and grow personally and professionally to reflect the fact that they are well-traveled and have learned from their international experiences.

There are athletes, for example, who have local sponsors and yet you never ever see them representing their sponsors by simply being ‘out there’ helping out with a cause, assisting with some kind of community project t hast puts them and their sponsors in good light. A lot of the ‘shy’ behaviour was learnt from how these athletes were raised and I get that, but life can be a classroom in which there is so much to learn and I would love to see more of our athletes take in some of those valuable lessons.

Those lessons can translate into greater earnings and nobody should want to leave money on the table.