The National Olympic Committee of Sierra Leone has on 28th January 2023 held a meeting with Sporting Associations at the Olymp-africa Goodrich on the West end of Freetown.
The Meeting with the Sporting Association is to map out the way forward in the new calendar year and activities ahead for the various Associations.
Prince Sullay the President of the National Olympic Committee said the meeting with the Sporting Association is for them to work as a team with the newly elected Executive of the National Olympic Committee.
He stated that it is very important that they recognize each other because is it very integral towards the development of Sports in the Country.
The NOC president said that during the just concluded Elective Congress, he was glad to see his colleagues who lose the elections were bold to stand and congratulate him and promise to work with him which is good for the NOC.
He said the key among other things for the meeting is that the Olympics Games is around the corner in 2024 in France, and many things are up, qualification schemes are coming up, and the training of athletes is pivotal.
The National Olympic Committee summons the meeting to chat with them ahead of that pivotal preparation to get a good start to move in the same page with the Associations.
“Am Curious after this General Meeting is going to set up a Government with individual Associations probably with the same set team of Executives with Technical people so that they can get an in-depth understand of where each Association stands.”
He added that it is also important that the reason behind the meeting is getting feedback from the Associations to know their constraints through their ideas.
He noted that the NOC has to try and forward capacity building to make Sierra Leone competitive on the international stage, because that is why Associations exist, noting it’s not only about identifying athletes.
He hoped that they can compete internationally and bring laurels to the Country which is key and there is need for all Sporting Associations to know that going forward.
Prince Sullay said it is also important for the NOC to know some of the Association constraints, governance issues, membership issues, constitutional issues there is a need for the NOC to know.
Under his leadership, Prince Sullay wants to start a data collection system for all Associations as now they are currently equipping the Secretariat and that he is going to appoint a technical director who will be tracked on the performance of athletes in international games.
The reason being is that for the past years, the country has to lose athletes in the international games simply because they did not have a track record of the athletes, so under his leadership want to bring that to an end, because the last commonwealth games the Country lose a lot of athletes.
He noted that “If the Association does not succeed on the international stage then the National Olympic Committee will not succeed, that is the sad reality, the sporting Associations, and the NOC we’re tied together”.
Yayah Koroma, the newly appointed Chief De Mission started by telling thanks to the Executive Committee of the NOC, noting that his appointment is a huge task and called for the cooperation of the Association for them to work as a team.
“The work of the Chef De mission is not an individual Job, noting it is a Job that requires collaboration with technical heads of all Associations”, he stated.
He said when he is appointed as Chef De Mission he contacted the Sporting Association and created a Whats App forum to have close chats with them.
“If we are to get better representation at the international News it has to do with the athletes and the technical heads of the Association”, He explained.
He furthered that four major games are coming up starting from the first one is the Africa Beach Games which is going to be held in Tunisia starting from the 24th to the 30th of June 2023.
He noted that the Africa Beach games are going to be a qualification for some Associations namely, 4×4 Beach Volleyball, Handball Air Badminton and qualifications for the World Beach Games, which is going to start from 5th August 12 August 2023.
He called on all Sporting Association to work with the Chef De Mission for smooth entries of athletes ahead of games.
