In “On the Sideline”, Dalton discusses the recent passing of legendary Jamaican footballer, Luton Shelton who is Jamaica’s leading scorer for the Jamaican national football team, the Reggae Boyz with 35 goals.

In the “Play of the Day”, “Sport for Development in the Caribbean: The Way Forward” is the focus. 

Guest: Ryan O. Brathwaite

Ryan is the Regional Development Manager – Caribbean and Americas, Commonwealth Games Federation. He plays a key role in providing operational and strategic support across all areas of the development programme. Ryan has held a number of positions at Commonwealth Games Barbados, including Senior Operations Officer. He is a graduate of the Russian International Olympic University in Sochi as well as the University of the West Indies. 

In this episode, Ryan discusses Sport for Development in the Caribbean: The Way Forward. He speaks about the benefits of sport in society in relation to health and wellness, education and development overall. He shares how sport being used as a development tool can reduce Noncommunicable diseases. 

Ryan also speaks about:

1. He shares the challenges to sport being viewed as a developmental tool in the Caribbean including lack of resources and inadequate expertise in sport administration across the region. 
2. The role of young people in sport administration and sport as a development tool regionally 
3. The importance of partnerships regionally to drive the development of sport regionally 

Ryan also shared his views on the low percentage of Barbadian athletes that transition from the junior level to professional levels. The key factors to building a lucrative sport industry regionally especially in the context of the pandemic. 

Other topics discussed are:

1. The importance of leveraging relationships and highlighting the value of the Caribbean to the global sport industry stakeholders
2. Investment in athletes 
3. How to assist professional and amateur athletes to establish strong brands
4. Sport as a tool to tackle tolerance and other social issues such as discrimination, racism and equality 
5. His vision for the expansion of sport development in Barbados and regionally 

The “Podcast Pick” for this week’s episode is “Beyond a Boundary” by C.L.R James.

Connect with Ryan: 

You can listen to The Drive Phase on any podcast directory. Here are a few:

Stitcher Podcast
Apple Podcast
TuneIn
Google Podcast

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