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SLOC Inc. Names Chefs de Mission for Upcoming Tournaments

By SLOC

The St. Lucia Olympic Committee (SLOC) Inc. has named four Chef de Missions for upcoming major tournaments.

At a press briefing on Thursday, November 3, the following persons were officially introduced to the media by President of SLOC Inc., Alfred Emmanuel, to serve in that capacity:

  • Monica Dudley — Commonwealth Youth Games in Trinidad and Tobago
  • Shayne Felicien – Santa Marta Beach Games in Colombia
  • Cornelius Breen — Centro Caribe Sports Games in El Salvador. His Assistant will be Isabel Marquis.
  • David Christopher — Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile. His Assistant will be Lisa Joseph, who will be serving in that capacity for the first time.

Emmanuel said the SLOC Inc. executive committee made the decision to appoint the Chefs de Missions early enough to allow them time to adequately prepare for the respective Games.

Emmanuel said despite receiving a WhatsApp message from a leader of a member association that accused SLOC Inc. and its President of selecting the same persons each time to serve and gain experience, the opposite is true.

“The St. Lucia Olympic Committee had an election. As President, I made three promises. One: to be inclusive. Two: to treat each and every member of this organization as an equal. And three: to go outside of what was the norm, and to bring in people.”

As an example, Emmanuel noted that being Chef de Mission for this year’s Caribbean Games held in Guadeloupe was George Charlemagne’s first stint in that role. Charlemagne’s assistant was Jean Morille, who is not an executive member of SLOC Inc. Cornelius Breen, Chef de Mission, will also be serving as Chef de Mission for the first time at the Centro Caribe Sports Games to be held El Salvador.

“This is thinking outside of the box,” Emmanuel stated. “This is inclusivity, bringing in people to gain the experience that I am now being accused of not doing.”

He added: “The executive committee of the St. Lucia Olympic Committee has every confidence in the people selected to be responsible for the Saint Lucian delegation at the respective events. They’re coming with vast experience from their own individual sport and, by extension, the experience they would have gained along the way interacting with local, regional and international bodies.”

The Chefs de Mission and Assistants made brief remarks at the press briefing.

Dudley: “I am looking forward to that challenge, and I know that recently our athletes have been doing very well at some Games. So I would expect some very high standards coming from our athletes.”

Breen: “The Centro Caribe Sports Games are very challenging, in that we have multiple sports across the board. So it will require the support of each and every one to ensure that the delegation is adequately prepared for the competition.”

Marquis: “I come with a background of experience in the field of multi-games competitions. So I’m looking forward to putting that forward in my assistance in the Games next year.”

Joseph: “We are hoping that we can better our last medal haul. I think we got the gold and bronze medals. So we’re hoping that this time we can even better that performance.”