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Commentary by Charles Wilkin QC,

The renaming of the National Athletics Stadium in honour of Kim Collins was an excellent decision.

Charles WilkinWhatever may have been the reason for not doing so from the outset that was a major error.  Now the stadium rightly bears the name of a true national hero.  For over a decade Kim has been the best known Kittitian and Nevisian in the world. He has put our country on the sporting map. He has been an unofficial ambassador. In a sport tainted for so long by drug cheats he has shown that an athlete can do well without steroids. His amazing longevity in the sport has drawn worldwide admiration and commendation.

I sincerely hope that the renaming of the stadium will be but the first step towards the return of Kim to the national team where he belongs.  The unapologetic purpose of this commentary is to call on the leaders of the National Olympic Committee and the Athletics Federation and on Kim to reconcile the differences which have put Kim in our country’s wilderness for too long.  I also ask the people of the country to join me in that quest by making your voices heard.

Having been involved, with others in 2013, in trying to broker reconciliation and having heard long and hard from both sides, I am only too aware of how deeply feelings run.  I believe however that this impasse has gone on too long and it is the national interest for both sides to bury the egos and the proverbial hatchet.  It is time that the people of St. Kitts and Nevis insist on that happening.

Kim has at times been a bit of a prima donna.  Great sportsmen often are.  That can be a byproduct of the single-minded focus and sacrifice that is required to succeed in sport.  They sometimes get carried away by the adulation they receive.  But those who have punished Kim for that attitude also know how hard he has worked to gain his success.  We see the races which last ten seconds but we do not see the weeks and months of hard and lonely training, the discipline of diet and rest, the physical and mental pain of injuries, the long flights, the lonely and endless hours in airports, the changes in time zones, the move from hotel to hotel and from bed to bed which Kim has endured so remarkably well for two decades.

A recognition of these truths would be timely and should help to soften the hard stance taken by the officials.

A small country cannot afford to have its major international asset in exile.  Kim must be allowed to lead the country’s athletes to the Rio Olympic Games in 2016, to bid farewell to the world of Athletics in style and to receive the accolades which the world would like to shower on him.  He should then be encouraged and rewarded financially to return home to be a visible, everyday role model for our young people, particularly our young men so many of whom lack positive role models.

At the same time our country needs an honest and blunt assessment of the factors which cause disputes like this to linger, which cause so many people here to politicize everything, which incline our people to drag people down more than to build them up. We need to confront this lack of self confidence, this lack of independence, this negativity which permeate our society. The return of Kim to the athletics fold of the country would give the debate a positive influence.