Bridgetown– Flow and the Barbados Olympic Association Inc. (BOA) officially entered into a five-year partnership agreement today in which the telecommunications giant has pledged over a half million dollars to the development of local sports over the period.
The official signing of the agreement took place at the BOA headquarters at Wildey and was witnessed by athletes vying to qualify for next year’s Olympics in Rio, former Olympians, representatives of national federations and senior Flow executives.
President of the BOA, Steve Stoute thanked its newest sponsor and explained that it is necessary for the private sector to invest in sport if Barbados is to do well internationally.
“Barbados has been very lucky to produce some very special athletes with natural talent and sterling dedication to their chosen disciplines. However, the science behind winning as many countries are now finding out goes beyond talent and is rather a formula that blends talent with millions of dollars in investment.
We should be celebrating the fact that we are lucky enough to have athletes that can qualify for the Olympics, for example, despite the fact that they do not have the level of financial support needed at this level. We at the BOA have been doing our best, but we fall short given we have 35 national associations to support and our funding comes primarily from the Lottery and our Olympic subvention.
Today then we salute Flow for its generosity in investing in local sports, and we encourage other private sector organisations to follow suit if we are to give our local athletes a fighting chance at international competitions,” Stoute said.
Managing Director of Flow, Niall Sheehy said that they are committed to supporting a number of causes in the territories in which Flow operates and sport is high on its list of priorities.
“I am pleased that we were able to come together with the BOA to announce this partnership, which is earmarked for five years in the first instance. Flow is all about the development of people, especially youth, and sport is one area that can help young people develop core life skills and guide them in the right direction.
We were also impressed by the work that the BOA is currently doing with limited resources and felt that this organisation is a worthy ally in our mission to impact this market positively,” said Sheehy.
In addition to the signing, the organisations also unveiled a new Flow sponsored, electronic billboard that has been installed at the BOA headquarters. The billboard will be broadcasting major sporting highlights and events, including the 2016 Olympics in Rio.