The Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) will be hosting a ceremony to acknowledge, reward and applaud the feats of the country’s athletes from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Dubbed ‘Olympic Salute’, the formal affair will be held on Saturday at the Terra Nova Hotel, beginning at 7 p.m., and will infuse the spirit and culture of Olympism into a kaleidoscope of sporting achievements.
“It will be yesterday’s quintessential traditions blending with contemporary tastes with both seated comfortably in the values of sport, which we celebrate and give primacy in the Olympic movement,” JOA president Christopher Samuda remarked.
‘Olympic Salute’ will take place after the staging of each Olympic Games but, as JOA Secretary General and CEO Ryan Foster intimated, the quadrennial ceremony may very well be more of an item on the agenda of the ruling body.
“Excellence is not time-bound. It is timeless, so whenever and wherever the JOA observes it we will applaud with respect and record for posterity while saluting our Olympic ambassadors, those inspired changemakers of a great sporting heritage of which the Olympic movement is the cornerstone,” he said.
The ceremony will be a white-gloved event, but the anticipated pageantry, pomp and circumstance will be secondary to the solemnity of the occasion.
Explaining its significance, Samuda commented: “Olympic Salute’ is much more than deserving smiles and golden handshakes. It is a celebration of the mettle, resilience and gravitas of the Olympic spirit exemplified in historic and gallant performances of our sportsmen and women and these are the human attributes in respect of which the JOA places a premium over and above electronic world and regional records and podium stances.”
Additionally, the JOA has created a suite of awards in recognising sporting valour, integrity and excellence and in furtherance of this, it plans on inaugurating its Order of Pre-eminence, which will be the highest honour that the national sports body will have in its gilded cabinet.
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