Swimming has become the latest sport to have its Academy Programme launched.
A section of the children and parents gathered for the start of the Swimming Academy
This occurred on Saturday afternoon with a ceremony being done at the National Aquatic Centre at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara.
Through the National Swimming Academy’s nursery, hundreds of young children and teenagers would be introduced to the sport, and be later groomed for competition.
At the launch of this Academy on Saturday afternoon, with more than 100 children present, the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson Jr, assessed the successes of the various nursery programmes in several sporting disciplines, and voiced his appreciation for the attention to detail the MCYS had taken in consulting stakeholders before the start of the Academy initiative.
“The idea was presented to all the sports associations, the media, representatives, for their assessment, evaluation, and critique. I also placed on Facebook page the entire presentation, which was half an hour. I placed it so that we could have public criticism, public input of what our sports academy would be, and the design of our sports academy,” Ramson explained.
The Sport Minister added, “I’m very pleased (with) all of our public assessments, all of our media assessments, that it has had.”
In his remarks, Director of Sports, Steve Ninvalle, touched on his entity’s commitment, to not just swimming, but all sports across Guyana, while highlighting the commitment to keep promises.
Ninvalle shared, “It was just 6 weeks ago that there was a promise that this academy would be launched; that promise has been kept. And these are the fundamentals of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, led by our astute Minister and by extension the Government of Guyana.
“Let it not be thought that swimming in isolation would be a beneficiary, but all sport disciplines across the 83,000 square miles we call our beloved Guyana will be benefiting from whatever resources (the) National Sports Commission has,” he declared.
Also, on the topic of promise-keeping, Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) President Dwayne Scott has said he values the commitment made by the Sport Ministry and the NSC to seeing the Swimming Academy through to fruition.
“The initiative was to harness the athletes involved in 12 disciplines, bringing them together to form the Academy to boost sports throughout Guyana. GASA was selected as part of that, and we are extremely grateful,” Scott said. “Today we see the initiative being realised,” he added.
Athletics, badminton, basketball, rugby, squash, table tennis and volleyball are some of the other sports for which academies have already been launched.
