President of the BVI Olympic Committee (BVIOC) Mr Ephraim E. Penn has said the executive board of the BVIOC (pictured) elected on December 5, 2024, wants to leave a solid foundation for their successors. Photo: BVIOC

President of the BVI Olympic Committee Mr Ephraim E. Penn. Photo: BVIOC

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will assist the BVI Olympic Committee to build a National Sports Structure. Photo: IOC

Speaking exclusively to Virgin Islands News Online (VINO) on December 6, 2024, Mr Penn said he met the BVIOC in an unorganised state in the early 2000s. The organisation was close to having the International Olympic Committee (IOC) take serious action against it.

The term for the BVIOC Executive Board is quadrennial and elections are usually held following the Summer Olympics.

The BVIOC’s executive board, elected during the committee’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on December 5, 2024, will serve from 2025 to 2028.

Mr Penn was also elected President of the Association of National Olympic Committees of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (ANOCES) this year.

IOC-assisted project coming

The newly elected executive board, Mr Penn said sees 2025 to 2028 as a transition period.

“We will not be in office after that and we want to leave something behind,” he told VINO hinting that this will be his last term as President of the BVIOC. He was first elected as President of the BVIOC at the 2008 AGM.  

 “We went to the International Olympic Committee to see if they could help us in building a National Sports Structure for the British Virgin Islands Olympic Committee.”

The IOC agreed and will send an expert to work with the BVIOC to make this request a reality and is expected to be in the Virgin Islands in early 2025.

The expert will work with all national sports federations, the Ministry of Education, Youth Affairs and Sports, and other stakeholders.

Getting other sporting disciplines to major games

Emphasis will be placed on all sports Mr Penn assured adding, “Not just Track and Field, we’re talking about all sports. How can we get more sports to major games?”

Placing all sports as a priority in the Territory and for the BVIOC he said will be the “keystone” of what the executive board will be doing as they “lay a solid foundation” for the executive board who will take over when his executive demits office.

This is important he explained, “so that they wouldn’t have to go through what I went through when I first met it in 2006”.

Mr Penn also said the 25-meter swimming pool project with PANAM Sports will continue during the new executive’s tenure.