Saint Lucia is expected to field a small team at the Pan Am Junior Games in scheduled for August 9-23 in Asunción, Paraguay later this year.
According to Saint Lucia Olympic Committee (SLOC) president Alfred Emmanuel, due to an unawareness of the qualifying mechanisms by a number of affiliates and administrators, only three or four federations are currently able to qualify athletes for the multi-sport event.
The Athletics Association, Aquatics Federation, and Table Tennis Association are among the federations likely to qualify athletes for the games, with Sailing also likely to be represented.
“From what we’ve seen, we don’t think that a number of associations paid close attention. And, as such, there just might be three or four associations that are in a position to qualify athletes for the event,” Emmanuel told St. Lucia Times.
“We had a meeting with all national federations closer to the end of 2024, and what some persons did realize is that some of the qualifiers had gone already. So once your qualifier is gone, then you are basically out of contention. There are some associations who really didn’t have athletes in a position to meet any qualifying standards, so those didn’t attend the meeting. So, we are now looking at a possibility of maybe three or four associations as I speak,” he added.
Emmanuel stressed that it is the duty of national federations to stay informed about regional governing body activities, absolving the SLOC of that responsibility.
“It simply shows you that those persons are not paying much attention to the continental activities,” he said.
Among the sports that held continental qualifying events in late 2024 were rugby, squash, and cycling.
“When it comes to those things, no Olympic Committee is really involved. It is basically between the continental associations and the national federations. The Olympic Committee is out of that. So, as we normally tell members, the national federations are better placed than the Olympic Committee to know of qualifiers and other events that the continental body is organizing. So, our thing is to assist members to get qualifiers, that is the first step. Get qualifiers, when you qualify, then we work on getting adequate representation to mount the podium. We have a very small wish list,” he added.