Thursday, June 28 2012

UNFORTUNATELY, sport is still a long way off from being widely accepted as a profession worthy of full time involvement by Trinidad and Tobago (TT) athletes.

It is unfortunate because the science of sport today requires a high level of financial, physical and psychological commitment to seriously compete with the rest of the world. In recognition of this Blink/bmobile has thrown its full support behind TT athletes as the official wireless provider of the TT Olympic team and the TT Olympic Committee (TTOC).

Given the rigourous training and events leading up to the games, the schedule of all 40 TT athletes competing at the Games would be hectic once they get to England. There are times too when they will get lonely on the road, being so far from their core support systems. Communication between the TTOC and the athletes is therefore vital and must be done in real time. With bmobile voice, data, text and BBM services, the lines of communication between the TTOC and the Olympic team will always be opened.

Bmobile and Blink has also developed individual support programmes for first time Olympians sprinter Jehue Gordon, sailor Andrew Lewis and cyclist Njisane Phillip at the games.

Four years ago bmobile sponsored Jehue to attend the Beijing Olympics as a spectator after he outperformed all competitors in a local sprint competition. Now, in 2012, bmobile is pleased to see that he has qualified through his own dedicated efforts is proud to have played a small part in his journey.

Andrew approached Blink/bmobile with a dream of qualifying for the Olympics, never mind it had been over 20 years since TT had an Olympic sailor. Now he is the first sailor from TT to qualify in the Laser class.

Siparia-born Njisane has steadily made the climb from gold medal status in the Junior Pan Am games to the Senior Pan Am games and now the big League – the Olympics. The right support behind these athletes is all the footing they need to leap to greatness.

Bmobile has partnered with CCN TV6 to allow this country to join in the estimated four billion viewership worldwide when the Games begin on July 27.

To bring the excitement to rural communities Blink/bmobile will also stage its own mini Olympics in the lead up to the international sporting event in the villages of Siparia (July, 8 at Irwin Park ), Barrackpore (July,15 Barrackpore Recreation Grounds) and Mason Hall , Tobago on July 22.

But London is ground zero for the Olympic vibe and technology and communications will be the non-rostrum winners of the Olympics. With an anticipated 14,500 athletes from over 200 countries set to participate in the London Olympics, communication facilities are central to the Olympic experience.

As Britain prepares itself for the world’s sportlight, communications giants around the world are also ramping up their game and pulling out all the stops.

US television broadcast network NBC announced a deal with You Tube to provide live streams of every event , recaps, interviews and on-line exclusive segments, BBC relaunched its sport site and is offering mobile device users video content over 3 G as well as Wi-Fi.

Getty images, the official photo agency of the Olympics, is expected to capture the Games in 3D and would use 360 degrees and robotic cameras.

London’s free Tube Wi-Fi network went live in the earlier part of this month allowing travelers to browse the web from the station’s platforms. The free Wi-Fi is being provided by Virgin media in preparation for the Olympic Games.

Visitors to the Nike and Adidas sites are already enjoying apps that allow them to set their personal running goals, train smarter, improve their performance and track their speed and endurance using a pace-based audible coach and online gps tracking.

Avid supporters and fans of the TT Olympic team will get the chance to live vicariously through our local athletes with the bmobile Olympic sport apps.

At bpartofit.com , fans can also track the performance of their favourite athletes and cheer them on with their comments, view game forecasts, keep up with the day’s events listings, get results of events they may have missed and follow tweets from TT athletes. You may not be able to fly to London to catch the London Olympic games live, but with Blink / bmobile’s ’s Olympics app, you’re not likely to miss a thing.