As part of its continued commitment to the sustainable development of sports in Jamaica, the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) says it has gone all out to fully fund all the participating teams in this year’s Caribbean and Central America (CAC) Games.

Ryan Foster, CEO and secretary general of the JOA, told the Jamaica Observer that it is costing his organisation a total of $70 million to send all the teams to this year’s championships.

“The CAC Games is one hundred per cent funded by the Jamaica Olympic Association and many will ask ‘why fund these games?’, and I think the answer is in the sporting representation and the diversification of giving other sporting associations the opportunity to showcase their talent on the international level,” said Foster.

“The cost is going to be in the excess of $70 million to send these teams to the championships and the Jamaica Olympic Association believes this would be a good investment and we expect a return on our investment.

“We have seen this in the past because our last CAC Games was our most successful where we won 27 medals and we have many sporting associations having multiple representations at the Olympic Games,” Foster added.

The championships, which will see Jamaicans competing in 21 disciplines up from 18 in 2018, will be held from June 23 to July 9 in the Central American country.

Jamaica’s 27 medals won at the last championships, which was held in Colombia, included 12 gold, four silver, and 11 bronze.

The Jamaica contingent is down to compete in netball and chess for the first time in the history of the Games.

Foster pointed out that these funds come from the JOA’s internal coffers as well as from their corporate sponsors whom he stated are very pleased with how well the Jamaican sporting associations have done in these international games in the past.

Foster noted that his organisation is prepared to spend big on its member associations this year.

“I think that we will continue to support and we will continue to invest, and this year is also a Pan American Games year and many Olympic qualifiers, and we project to spend over $200 million on our sporting associations,” he said.

“This in trying to get them to CAC Games, which we have already done. Get them to the Pan American Games and we are now in the process of supporting our sporting associations and for the Olympic qualifiers.

“I believe that this year is going to be one of our most hectic years in terms of funding, but I believe that our investments over the years since 2017 until now have borne many dividends for, not just us the Jamaica Olympic Association our member association, but also for our sponsors,” he added.

Foster underlined that that at the last Olympic Games the country was represented in judo for the first time in the history of the championships, while boxing made a return at the event for the first time in over 26 years.

“I think that these games costing us $70 million will bear the investments that we plan to see, especially in these new sports like chess, netball, and of course the usual suspects like track and field, football, rugby and so on,” Foster ended.