Belize plans to build high-performance sporting complexes in three more districts, Orange Walk, Cayo and one southern district, as part of a broader push to professionalise the country’s sports development system, according to Minister of Sports Anthony Mahler.
The other three facilities will be built on the flagship model used to build the Marion Jones Sports Complex in Belize City, which Mahler said will become the country’s top high-performance centre.
“We’re working on trying to raise some financing for that. And then we would have four of those across the country. So one in Belize City, one in Orange Walk, one down south, and one in Cayo somewhere,” Mahler added.
The proposal comes as the government looks to address what Mahler described as a “fragmented” approach to sports development.
“We have had a culture in sports for having organization, for having a streamlined approach to doing things. It has all been fragmented. And so today is the start of what we want to have as a collective approach in pooling our resources, whether that’s money, whether that’s talent, whether that’s training skills, whatever it is, that is what I mean by alignment,” he said.
Mahler addressed concerns over how this new approach would survive beyond his own tenure. He explained that the intention is to form a coalition between the National Sports Council, the Olympic Committee and sporting federations, alongside a policy strategy meant to guide development over the next five to ten years.
“That is the only way you can continue to develop a nation. That is the only way you can continue to develop our athletes,” he said. “We have to create the systems in the schools as well to allow us to identify talent at a very young age.”
Financing is still being pursued for the three proposed sport centers.
