Is sports living up to its core values?

Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC) president Keith Joseph, in his recent (17th July 2026) president’s newsletter to CANOC member national Olympic Committees (NOCs), highlighted some pertinent issues that will have a significant impact on global Olympic sport as we now know it. Here is the thing. For all the surface commercial success of global sport. There is trouble brewing.

Today’s Things That Matter will cede space for a full sharing of the CANOC president’s recent piece.

Have a thoughtful read: The global environment continues to be dominated by conflicts between nations, even as the FIFA World Cup sets new attendance records and the sport’s international governing body becomes embroiled in controversy both on and off the field, while the new president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) seeks to establish her own legacy within the global Olympic Movement.

The future of the Youth Olympics to be in jeopardy as the IOC’s leadership has put the voting on the next host on hold voting on the next host until after the conclusion of this year’s edition of the summer version in Dakar, Senegal.

All international federations, long accustomed to striving to be core sports on the Olympic programme, are in a state of flux as the concept of ‘core sports’ is in disappearing mode.

The future of both the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) and the Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations (AIOWF) also seems to be uncertain.

Somehow, global developments in sport over the past several months appear to run contrary to their own once-cherished lofty values attendant thereto. What is emerging before all of us is the systematic concentration of the power of decision-making in sport in the hands of the few and the marketing of delightful condescension masked as development. Colonized nations continue to reel under the pressure of a modified benevolent dictatorship in and through sport that leaves them blinded to the emergent realities and all-too-readily disposed to their acceptance as progress.

Here in the Caribbean, the 51st Regular Meeting of the CARICOM Heads of Government that took place in St. Lucia, the first week of July 2026, reflected its own conundrum relative to the important imperative of regional integration and genuine unity, a persistent theme since the organization’s establishment. The leaders, despite proclaiming progress, found little to provide as evidence of it. The needle has not shifted, and the future, inherited by today’s youths, remains bleak. Indeed, the youth’s presentation to the meeting ‘underscored the need for active youth participation in crafting the region’s future… pathways to progress—freedom of movement, food security, artificial intelligence (AI), and deepening international partnerships that place youth, innovation, and shared responsibility at the center of CARICOM’s journey forward.’

Sport barely received the attention it deserves from the heads of government beyond the reference that the heads accepted the offers from ‘Guyana to host the CARIFTA Games in 2027 and…Barbados to host the CARIFTA Games in 2028.’ This is at a time when new global alliances are being forged and sports’ contributions to national and regional economies are given pivotal roles in the emerging international economic order. National and the broader Caribbean sports organizations, therefore, have much work to do in respect of enhancing governance and performance across the region and building bridges of hope and inspiration for the region’s youths. In many respects, our sporting organizations can be among the best examples of our Caribbean-ness. This gives us all the more reason for us to ensure that we are model institutions and a key socialization agent for current and future generations of our Caribbean peoples.

Editor’s note

The views expressed in the preceding article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of any organisation in which he is a stakeholder.