Page 37 - Team TTO PARIS 2024
P. 37

A Gold For Pan




           What would be the most
           appropriate end to the 2024
           Olympics for the people of
           Trinidad and Tobago?

           Not only a gold medal win,
           but a win on August 11, the
           last day of the Games in
           Paris.

           Why? In 2023, the United
           Nations declared August 11
           World Steelband Day and so,
           if a year later Trinidad and
           Tobago's athletes win on that
           day, it will be a hugely
           significant piece of history if   Olympic history was
           the steelpan version of our       made when the
           national anthem is played at
           the Games and broadcast           steelpan version
           live to a worldwide audience.        of our anthem

           The steelpan is an instrument   was played for an
           that was created in Trinidad       Olympic medal
           in the 1930s from discarded
           oil drums. It has a history of              ceremony
           resistance born out of the
           banning of the African drum
           by the colonial rulers during slavery.           Switzerland on July 5, 2022. The 2008 men’s 4x100m relay
                                                            team originally finished in second place in Beijing but a positive
           It emerged from the urban tenements of T&T’s capital   drug test from Jamaica’s Nesta Carter led to the Jamaican
           Port of Spain and has evolved with ingenious     team's disqualification from the event.
           innovations over the years to become one of the
           world’s more versatile and highly regarded musical   This melodious rendition of the anthem was approved for
           instruments.                                     medal ceremonies like the Commonwealth Games, Pan
                                                            American Games and Central American and Caribbean Games
           The steelpan is the national instrument of this country,   since 2018, but the ultimate goal was to have the sound of
           a status that was only made official this year by   steel represent our nation at global sport’s highest platform.
           Parliamentary decree on June 7.                  The road wasn’t straight forward but the IOC led by President
                                                            Thomas Bach gave the approval in January 2020.
           Olympic history was made when the steelpan version
           of our anthem was played for an Olympic medal    The TTOC's  Pan on de Podium goal is for the steelpan anthem
           ceremony.                                        to be played at all games under their purview.

           It was first heard at a gold medal re-allocation   Let’s hope our athletes can give us the chance to sing our
           ceremony at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne,      anthem with pride to the sweet sounds of steel in Paris.








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