Barranquilla, Colombia—St. Maarten is now officially an associate member of the Central American & Caribbean Sports Organization (CACSO).
“ This is truly a historical accomplishment for St. Maarten,” Aartwichgt Bell of the St. Maarten Sport & Olympic Federation (SMSOF.) “This means that the doors are open for official participation in the CAC (Central American and Caribbean) and PANAM Games. This may lead to the qualification to the Olympic Games 2020 for Sint Maarten.”
After 10-10-10 the sport status for St. Maarten was unknown. The Netherlands Antilles Olympic Committee was disbanded leaving no clear path for a local athlete to go for the gold.
The St. Maarten Sport Federation realized the problem and first had to reorganize itself into
The St. Maarten Sport & Olympic Federation.
“Country St. Maarten needed to step-up and move strategically forward with a structured
action plan to raise the bar and bring sport on Sint Maarten to the next level,” explained Bell.
SMSOF launched the project “St. Maarten Promising Athletes (SPA) 2015 – 2020 with the purpose and vision to identify talented athletes, implement special support for Sport scholarship, prepare and develop high-performance athletes, and to lead St. Maarten into qualification for the Youth, CAC and Pan-American Games starting 2018 to 2020.
The next step was the affiliations of the Federations of the various sport disciplines, members of the SMSOF to their International Confederations in order for Sint Maarten to be accepted as associate member to the CACSO. This was a strenuous exercise that resulted in 11 sports, Athletics, Aquatics, Boxing, Canoeing, Cycling, Judo, Volleyball, Sailing, Table tennis, Taekwondo and Triathlon are now registered.
In process are Baseball, Basketball and Gymnastics.
The next step will be to continue the preparation of athletes of the selected sports disciplines on the competitive level and the participation in qualifying games and on to the CAC games in Barranquilla Colombia.
