Two Saint Lucian weightlifters are drawing attention to the potential of the sport locally following their performances at the CAC Games in Santo Domingo, where they competed against experienced athletes at the Olympic level.
Raiven Gabriel and Jennica Albert represented Saint Lucia at the regional competition, with their participation highlighting the growing ambitions of the country’s weightlifting community.
Minister responsible for Youth Development and Sport Kenson Casimir said the performances come against the backdrop of an ongoing national discussion about how limited resources should be distributed among Saint Lucia’s sporting disciplines.
Casimir acknowledged that one school of thought has traditionally been to concentrate resources on sports in which Saint Lucia has already established a strong record.
“Some people, the school of thought would be, focus on what you’re best at,” he said.
He pointed to cricket, athletics and volleyball as examples of sports in which Saint Lucia has performed well, noting that such an approach would see greater attention and funding directed towards established disciplines while other sports receive additional, but comparatively limited, support.
“We’ve had previous governments who’ve actually mentioned that this is the way to develop small island sports,” Casimir said.
However, he said he does not support an approach that leaves emerging or less established disciplines behind.
“As Minister of Sport, I wouldn’t want to see any sport left behind,” Casimir said.
He acknowledged that supporting a wider range of sports comes with significant financial demands, particularly for weightlifting.
“The reality is, with that approach, you need a lot of financing,” he said.
Casimir explained that weightlifting requires considerable investment in athlete preparation and facilities.
“You need to be able to give weightlifters, which is one of the more expensive sports because you have to do supplementation, you have to do gym, you have to do a lot of time investment in that,” he said.
He said the challenge facing the Ministry of Youth Development and Sport is finding the resources to support athletes across the country’s various sporting disciplines.
“We have all of these different sporting activities and we as a nation, we are doing well in most of them and it requires us now to acquire additional financing towards it,” Casimir said.
Despite those challenges, the Minister said the Government remains committed to finding additional funding to strengthen Saint Lucia’s sporting infrastructure.
“Me as minister, we continue, we continue to work towards ensuring that we have those finances,” he said.
Casimir pointed specifically to a commitment contained in the Government’s most recent manifesto to establish a national weightlifting facility.
“We have within our last manifesto, the creation of a weightlifting gym for Saint Lucia, a national weightlifting gym,” he said.
He described the proposed facility as an indication that weightlifting is being taken seriously by the Government.
“So I can tell you that signals to weightlifters that this government is serious about their plight,” Casimir said.
The Minister acknowledged that establishing a suitable facility would require substantial investment because of the specialized nature of the sport.
“It is expensive because you need some real technical, esoteric sort of equipment for that sport,” he said.
Casimir said the Government expects weightlifters to receive the level of support necessary to develop their abilities and compete more effectively at regional and international competitions.
“We expecting that at the end of the day, that very soon they will be given that required level of attention that we know they deserve,” he said.
The performances of Gabriel and Albert at the CAC Games have therefore added further impetus to calls for greater investment in weightlifting, as Saint Lucia seeks to broaden its sporting success beyond its traditionally strongest disciplines.