Bahamas Olympic Committee

Bahamas Olympic Committee

Country	Bahamas
Code	BAH
Created	1952
Recognized	1952
Continental Association	PASO
President	Romell Knowles
Secretary General	Derron Donaldson
Website	bahamasolympiccommittee.org

The Bahamas Olympic Committee, formerly the Bahamas Olympic Association (IOC code: BAH), is the National Olympic Committee representing the Bahamas. The committee is also the Commonwealth Games Association representing the island nation.^[1]

The Bahamas Olympic Committee manages national teams and represents athletes that compete in the Olympic Games, the Central American and Caribbean Games, the Pan American Games, and the Commonwealth Games. The BOC is composed of 23 national federations with full membership privileges, including voting rights in the BOC's general assembly. The Executive Board of the Committee consists of the President, six Vice-Presidents, the Secretary General and the Treasurer.^[2][3][4][3]

The Bahamas Olympic Association was established on the 7th of May, 1952, with Sir George Roberts as its first president. Other founding members were C. V. Bethel, Gerald Cash, Edwin Davies, Randol Fawkes, Reginald Farrington, Joseph Garfunkel, Kendal Isaacs, Edward Mitchell, Fred Moultrie, Cyril Richardson, Reginald Robertson, and Orville Turnquest. The entire idea was advanced by Eustace Myers, who was inspired and aided by the Jamaica Olympic Association and its head Sir Herbert McDonald.^[3][5] Since then, the Bahamas has sent its team to compete in every Summer Olympic Games, except the boycotted 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.^[6]

For the first time Bahamian athletes competed under the auspices of the Bahamas Olympic Association in 1952 in Helsinki. Then, the Bahamas competed only in yachting. At these Games Sir Durward Knowles and Sloane Farrington won the country's first bronze medal in the Star Class sailing event.^[3] At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the Bahamas won its first ever Olympic gold medal: Sir Durward Knowles sailed to a first-place finish in the 1964 Star Class Sailing event.^[7]

By 1969, the Bahamas Olympic Committee had as one of its member organisations the national netball association.^[8]

Its third president, former Minister of Health Dr. Norman Gay served from 1972 to 1973.^[9] In 1973, Sir Arlington Butler became the fourth President of the Bahamas Olympic Association. He served for more than 35 years, under his tenure the Bahamas won seven Olympic medals in athletics and nurtured world-class athletes in athletics, basketball, swimming, softball, boxing, and tennis. Under Sir Butler's decades-long presidency, the committee expanded to include 18 national federations and associations representing Olympic sports.^[10][3] He was actively collaborating to the development of the Pan American Sports Organization and the Association of National Olympic Committees.^[11] Butler was voted out of office in 2008, surpassed by Wellington Miller who then served as a vice president from 2004 to 2008. In Miller's first presidential term, on the 11th of April 2013 the Bahamas Olympic Association amended its constitution and renamed the Bahamas Olympic Committee to conform with the International Olympic Committee regulations.^[12][6]

According to The Nassau Guardian, around 2002 the relationship between BOC president Sir Butler and the rest of chief officials deteriorated to the level that the disputes were brought to court. The International Olympic Committee had to step in and coordinate talks and eventually monitor the elections of 2008, when Sir Butler's former Vice Wellington Miller was elected President. The first years of Miller's term were marked with negative signs, he was openly opposed by a group of executives and criticized for weak leadership.^[13] In 2012, BOC's constitution was amended, introducing a two-term limit for the top executive posts.^[14] In 2013, Miller was re-elected President.^[15] When elected Vice-President in 2013, Cora Hepburn discovered that in the previous four years no financial report has been tabled.^[16] Miller served for two full four-year terms and tried to run for the third term. Talking to The Nassau Guardian, he expressed confidence in winning, stating that "the new provisions [of the amended constitution] would begin from the time that the amendment came into being".^[17][18] Miller stopped only when confronted by an opposition group with a lawyer Wayne Munroe who threatened him with a court case.^[19][20] In the end, Miller demitted office in 2017, Rommel Knowles was elected new President of the Bahamas Olympic Committee and Derron Donaldson was elected Secretary General.^[21][22]

In 2019, Derron Donaldson accused Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Lanisha Rolle of multiple protocol violations: she was meeting with International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) officials without prior note to Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA), her entourage's size at the 2019 IAAF World Relays caused multiple complaints by national federations, her ministry's response time was called inadequate, etc.,^[23] while some federations had not received financial grants in over a year.^[24] Rolle resigned in 2021, in 2023 she was investigated by the police on the grounds of multiple poor maintenance practices discovered in 2018-21.^[25]

Amidst COVID-19 pandemic, BOC announced giving support grants to professional athletes that were not sponsored by sports brands or the Olympic Committee.^[26]

One of the biggest successes of BOC was hosting 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games, the biggest multi-sport event ever to be held in the Bahamas.^[27]

In June 2023, BOC established the Athletes Welfare Commission, a committee to assist developing athletes.^[28]

In September 2023, Romell Knowles was re-elected President of BOC, his colleagues secretary general Derron Donaldson and treasurer Dorian Roach were also re-elected unopposed.^[29]

• Sir George Roberts (1952 – 1957);
• Robert Symonette (1957 – 1972);
• Dr. Norman Gay (1972 – 1973);
• Sir Arlington Butler (1973 – 2008);
• Wellington Miller (2008 – 2017);
• Romell Knowles (2017 – present).

BOC faces constant criticism regarding their handling of coach and athlete selections as it lacks transparency and often contradicts the recommendations of local sports associations.^[30][31]

In 2015, Bahamas Gymnastics Parent Booster Club reported violation of the electoral process of the Gymnastics Federation of The Bahamas, moderated by BOC and personally by Romell Knowles. BGPBC stressed out that Knowles allowed the incumbent President Barbara Thompson to use a casting vote to decide an outcome even though under the Gymnastics Federation of the Bahamas regulation a second round of voting is to be taken in case of a tie. BOC didn't interfere until the issue was reported to the Federation of International Gymnastics (FIG).^[32]

In July 2020 the announcement of Team Bahamas 2020 sparked an outcry for controversial selection. In Women 200 m, the Bahamas was scheduled to have three competitors but had four athletes eligible - Shaunae Miller-Uibo, Anthonique Strachan, Brianne Bethel, and Tynia Gaither. Strachan was registered as a reserve, even though she finished second to Miller-Uibo in 22.76 seconds at the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations' National Track and Field Championships in June 2020. Both Bethel and Gaither did not compete then, but they had achieved the qualifying standard earlier in the season. The Bahamas Track and Field Coaches Association objected to BOC's decision and sent a letter to the team officials demanding that Strachan be included in the line-up and a runoff be between Gaither and Bethel. Still, a 150 m race between Strachan and Brianne Bethel was staged directly in Tokyo.^[33][34] Strachan won and got to compete in the Women's 200 metres. Team manager Dawn Woodside-Johnson and head coach Rudolph Ferguson resigned immediately from the Bahamas Coaches Association as they were opposed to the runoff. When contacted by the media, Strachan publicly announced that in her point of view "the whole process wasn't handled properly" by both BOC and BAAA, she thanked the Bahamas Coaches Association for support and expressed her solidarity with Bethel who suffered the same mistreatment.^[35][36] The debacle unfolded into BOC accusing the team officials of insubordination, veteran coach Rupert Gardiner was stripped of his accreditation and sent home from the Games.^[37]

The selection of the team for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris was again marked with controversy. In July 2024, Lacarthea Cooper was excluded from Team Bahamas even though she finished in the top three of the 400m event at the BAAA Junior and Senior Nationals and was recommended by the Bahamas Association of Athletics Associations. Cooper was replaced by Shania Adderley, a promising athlete who still finished below Cooper in trials.^[38][39] BAAA's President Drumeco Archer condemned the exclusion as it was against the federation's selection process.^[40][41] Following a wide public outcry, the BOC and BAAA announced that they will include Cooper into the team and will sponsor her travel to Paris, though she won't be allowed to compete.^[42][43][44]

• Bahamas at the Olympics
• Bahamas at the Commonwealth Games

• Ministry of Education & Culture (1970). Annual report - Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Ministry of Education and Culture. Ministry of Education & Culture. OCLC 1793427.
• Olympic Directory 1975 (PDF). Ford Presidential Library. 1975.

• Official website
• Bahamas Olympic Association