1 month ago
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President of the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) Christopher Samuda said the association is committed to rolling out a pension scheme for Jamaican athletes and has called on the support of the Government and corporate Jamaica.
Speaking with The Gleaner on Thursday, Samuda said the JOA is committed to establishing a pension scheme for athletes, although admitted their idea is still in the planning stage.
He said while no deadline has been set for when the scheme would be put in place, he is aware “time is of the essence”.
“This is something that we have always said at the Jamaica Olympic Association that must happen. It is an infrastructural element of sports and something that is sensible to any successful endeavour in sports,” he said.
“We owe it to our athletes to ensure that after their shelf life in sports, by which they have brought glory to the country, that at least they can have a pension and can sit reasonably comfortable in their years after sports.”
He continued, “So time is of the essence. We will be meeting to see how we can establish a pathway to that.”
Samuda said in order for their plans to be realised, it will take a lot of funding and the involvement of important stakeholders.
He has called for the support of the Jamaican Government and corporate Jamaica to meet the JOA at the discussion table in order to see how well they can implement an athlete’s pension scheme.
“Of course, it has to be a synergy between corporate capital, the Government and it has to involve other critical stakeholders, just like how we did when we rolled out the insurance plan,” he explained.
“Any pension activation requires a lot of capital and guarantees as well so financial institutions will have to be involved, the Government as well will have to be involved so we’re going to look at a very holistic approach – it has to be.
“No one entity can do it because it is a national plan that is going to be serving hundreds of athletes, so it cannot be a halfway house, it has to be very meaningful from a financial point of view and also from a governance point of view.”
Samuda also called for the support of Jamaican athletes, believing their input will prove important in how the potential person scheme will be structured.
WAKE-UP CALL
Samuda said the pension scheme will be just one of several ways the association will assure athletes and fans alike that the JOA is committed to athlete welfare.
He said with the recent news that four Jamaican field event athletes have decided to switch allegiance to Türkiye, it is now a wake-up call for Jamaica’s sporting administrations.
“When our athletes are deciding to leave, that should be a wake-up call,” he said.
“Therefore, we have to look at what we’re doing now to ensure that there is remedial work. We have to look to see what other activations we can pursue to ensure that our athletes don’t make that decision too readily because of their financial circumstances.”
He said while Jamaica cannot match the offers made by more resourceful countries, it is important for the administrations to have programmes in place to ensure athletes are less likely to leave for more lucrative opportunities.
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