Congrats to George Bovell III

NOT only Trinidad and Tobago but the region would want to congratulate swimmer George Bovell III on his success at the Athens Olympics yesterday. The 20-year-old Auburn University student won the Bronze medal in his favourite event, the 200 metre Individual Medley, in a time of one minute 58.80 seconds, just .02 of a second behind second placed American Ryan Lochte and 1.66 seconds short of Michael Phelps’ winning time of one minute 57.14 seconds. In this event, Bovell again made Caribbean sporting history by being the first swimmer from the English speaking region to qualify for an Olympics final and then the first to win a medal. It is interesting to note that while his time in the final was faster than the two minutes 00.31 seconds he clocked in the second semi-final, it was slower than the one minute 54.65 seconds timing he registered at the NCAA Championships in New York last March to break the world record held by Finnish and Hungarian swimmers.

The fact is, if the TT swimmer had achieved any time close to his world record, then he would have been winning the country’s second Olympic Gold Medal, beating the celebrated Phelps who, in this event, added a fourth gold to his medal haul at Athens. Looking at his experience in international competition, his impressive results in these contests and the race he swam yesterday, it is our view that Bovell was unlucky not to win silver or even gold in this 200 metre Individual Medley. He certainly had the ability to do it. But who can account for the unpredictability of sport? What seemed to make the eventual difference was Bovell’s relatively poor start, being among the last to enter the water. As a result, he found himself in sixth place after the butterfly and backstroke legs of the race, and had to depend on his strength as a breast stroker and free stylist to close the gap. On equal terms from the start, it seemed to us, Bovell would have outswam the competition.

At 20, however, the TT swimmer’s career is still in its early stages and one may safely predict that he has, at the very least,  two more Olympics to improve on his performance at Athens. Still, by winning the Bronze, George Bovell III has done our country proud and he deserves our congratulations. It is important, we think, to hail his achievement for another reason, since it should serve as a much-needed inspiration to the country’s and the region’s young aspiring athletes. His success as a swimmer was not achieved by sudden flight, rather it was the result of years of single-minded and disciplined dedication to the sport beginning at an early age. Greatness in any field of human endeavour, in fact, has no other price; it can be attained by no other route than the one that Bovell has taken.

So as we celebrate his winning an Olympic Bronze and welcome him among the small group of TT athletes to bring this special glory to our country, we must also hope that the vital lesson inherent in his sporting pre-eminence will be brought home to TT’s young people who now seem to need it more than ever. Going off on a tangent, we must express our sympathy with Newsday’s readers who have complained bitterly about television coverage of the Olympics. TT is a sport loving nation, but our interests in this area are far different from the American’s; we have little or no interest in such events as rowing, beach volleyball, white water canoeing, water polo, wrestling and gymnastics. What about football, hockey, boxing, table tennis, and other sports that are popular in TT? What, in fact, is the purpose of the CMC?