Dr George Norton, the Minister of Social Cohesion, had long been known as a fervent sportsman. In fact, he served as Vice President of the Athletic Association of Guyana (AAG), is a usual sponsor of athletes representing Guyana, especially those from the hinterland regions, a swimmer and football player; all which started before his political days and something he continued even before his role with the Coalition Government.

Many sports representatives and enthusiasts thought that Dr Norton would’ve been best suited to serve the Guyanese people in the capacity as the minister responsible for sport, but, President David Granger instead appointed that portfolio to Nicolette Henry.

President Granger a few months ago, removed Dr Norton as Minister of Health, and appointed him Minister of Social Cohesion. Also in one of the best moves by the Government, Sport was placed under Dr Norton’s Ministry.

Dr Norton, in an exclusive interview with Chronicle Sport, was emotional in his remarks at how overwhelmed he is with regards to how the country’s sportsmen and women are treated but, was adamant that under his watch, “a change will come.”

“I can tell you that it greaves my heart when I go to a top secondary school in Guyana to look at their sports and I see people are not properly cladded, people are not organised and so on, and that has to change; that’s where it all starts, in the school and we need to develop that standard from the school system” Dr Norton said.

MUST HAVE A FRAME WORK

At this year’s South American Youth Games, held in Santiago, Chile, Guyana’s 15-man team returned with four medals from the multi-sport event.

Kenisha Phillips picked up two silver (100M & 200M), Jermaine King copped a silver in the boys 100M and the country’s lone gold came from 15-year-old Deshanna Skeete in the girls 400M.

However, in the October 11 Guyana Chronicle, a story was told about Skeete’s mother’s struggle to cater for the athlete and her five other siblings as a single parent, as Dr Norton pointed out that a frame work must be implemented to render assistance to athletes outside of honouring them whenever they defy the odds.

“There’s no doubt that we must have a system in place. We just can’t willy-nilly be giving athletes prizes as they perform. They’ve got to have a system in place, where, for instance, if we see at an early age an athlete is performing exceptionally well, we must be able to offer that athlete help in academic performance and welfare, whether it is getting them to a school at a higher level than the one they attend and if there’s housing facility and so on” Dr Norton opined.

According to Dr Norton, “If an athlete like Deshanna Skeete is performing well, I would do everything possible to get her into, let’s say President’s College where there’s a dorm, where the academic standard is high and where she can continue her training, because that’s the purpose, but we need to put systems in place rather than handing out gifts and waiting for a scholarship agency to get a scholarship.”

While admitting that much could’ve been done to support our athletes, Dr Norton stated “I don’t want us to look back at the things we did wrong, although it’s imperative to learn from mistakes, but let’s look to the future as the ministry looks to do all it can in offsetting expenses in the athletes training and academic pursuits. We promise to give you all that we can for your development.”