Features

Dr Adrian Lorde speaks to Advo Magazine

By David Harris

Dr Adrian Lorde has made a sterling contribution to sports in Barbados for over 40 years; during that time Lorde, a medical practitioner has served as an administrator, the physician to several national teams, pioneered the field of sports medicine on the island.

Lorde was the founding president of the Barbados Sports Medicine Association, is the current chairman of the National Anti-Doping Commission, the vice chairman of the Caribbean Regional Anti-Doping Organisation (RADO) having previously served as its first chairman from 1995 to 2019.

He is a member of the Medical Commission of the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games and Pan American Sports, and is the first chairman of the North American, Central American, and the Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) Sports Medicine Commissions; and has contributed to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in several capacities.

A director of the Barbados Olympic Association, he has attended major games in several capacities-including six Olympics, and was the Chef de Mission for the Barbados team at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, and has served as a director of the National Sports Council.

Lorde was an Independent Observer for WADA at the Athens Olympics in 2004, and also served in that capacity at the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar in 2006, and the Winter Para Olympics in Vancouver, Canada in 2010

In 2014, he was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen Birthday Honours for his services to Sports Medicine.

Last December, Lorde was elected to serve on the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Committee of the Federation Internationale de I ‘Automobile (FIA), the governing body of motor sports.

He has presented papers in Sports Medicine and Anti-Doping at local, regional, and international conferences; and has conducted research into Exercise induced Asthma, Drug Use in Sports, and the Effects of Covid-19 in Athletics Performance.

“I was never an athlete at school. I tried but was unsuccessful. I watched and supported sports from the sidelines. In the 1970s when the then Amateur Athletic Association of Barbados was in need of funds, I volunteered to assist them. I was studying in Jamaica and was privileged to become a team official at the 1979 CARIFTA Games in Kingston. The need for a sports medicine specialist was realised. After qualifying in Medicine, I co-founded the Barbados Sports Medicine Association in 1985; and later with the assistance of Esther Maynard, (a former president of the Amateur Athletic Association of Barbados) I was invited to attend a Doping Control Officer’s training programme in Puerto Rico in 1990, and life was never the same after that”, Lorde told Advo Magazine.

In his capacity as the chairman of the Anti-Doping Commission since 2000, Lorde has led the fight against doping in sports and is at the forefront at the campaign for clean sports on the island.

Lorde has mentored persons who are involved in the fight against drugs in sports locally and regionally.

“I have mentored many locally and, in the Caribbean. We have been primarily been educating athletes and their support personnel as we belief the education comes first before an athlete ends up in a doping control station”, Lorde said

He told Advo Magazine that being a sports administrator in the area of Sports Medicine and Anti-Doping has been a challenging but it was also a given him tremendous satisfaction.

“It is all voluntary, but being able to slot in the time in my busy days to give service has been increasingly difficult. In Sports Medicine we have seen a recent increase in interest locally by professionals, but the challenge is to educate our sports persons and their coaches, trainers, national federations, and even parents to use newer scientific methods of exercise, training and competition, and get them to change for the better.

In anti-doping, we need at least one or more full time staff members to manage the operations of the NADC. It is increasingly difficult to be fully operational using part-time personnel voluntarily”, he explained.

Lorde, has had several grand moments as an administrator during his career, but the highlight of his career in sports administration was at the Athens Olympics in 2004.

“As a sports administrator, I have represented Barbados and the region of the Americas on the first Foundation Board of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for a number of years, and sat on a number of their committees, but representing that organisation at the Athens Olympics in 2004 as a WADA Independent Observer of the Internation Olympic Committe anti-doping was my most outstanding moment”, Lorde said.

When asked what are his recommendations for the improvement of sports in Barbados Lorde said: “We need to more scientific in our methods of training, nutrition, competition, plus rehabilitation and recovery from sports injuries, even in amateur sports, and use these procedures for the betterment of our sportspersons”.

Features

SPORTS AN INTEGRAL PART OF DOMINIC’S LIFE

Article by David Harris

Dominic Hill has an impressive record as a sportsman, coach and administrator, he played hockey for Barbados and captained the junior and senior national teams.

Hill played over 50 matches for Barbados; and after he stopped playing the game, Hill coached the national team at several regional and international tournaments.

He managed the now defunct Barbados Tridents in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) for two years and was the manager of the team that won the tournament in 2019; he served as a member of the marketing committee of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) for five years.

In 2005, Hill organised a 46-game all day indoor hockey tournament spread over three-days; in 2023 he conceptualized the Gold Cup Village which brought a new demographic to the most prestigious horse race in Barbados.

While traveling the region and world playing hockey, Hill who has a degree in Management from the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), saw the benefits of combining holidays with sporting activities, in 2003 he founded a company to provide visitors to the island with such a service. After graduating from the UWI, he returned as a part time lecturer to teach a course about Sports Tourism in a program called Co-Curricular Credit in Sports.

“Sports has always been an integral part of my life from my boyhood days; growing up I played a variety of sports and was an avid fan of watching sports on television. I am a huge Liverpool fan, and I used to watch the only football show on local television about football in England called the Road to Wembly. Cricket was massive in my home; I never missed a Brian Lara’ innings at Kensington Oval. I played cricket and football at St. Cyprian’s School; and I represented Combermere as an opening batsman in the Under-15 cricket. I continued to play football at Combermere, but I also took up hockey, badminton, table tennis and football, until my strict mother told me choose one sport and focus on my schoolwork”, Hill told Advo Magazine.

To the disappointment of his father, Hill decided to play hockey because most of his close friends were playing the game, at the age of 16, he was selected to represented Barbados at the Junior Pan American Games in Cuba.

“Coach Deighton Maynard groomed me as a starter in that Under-21 tournament as a left back. The following tournament was hosted in Barbados in 1996, the first one to be played on artificial grass in the island. I was the captain and played at center midfield “, Hill said.

He said among his most memorable moments on the hockey field were captaining Barbados at home in 1996 at the Junior Pan Am Games, and in 2003 in the Dominican Republic when he was the senior captain and selected as the flag bearer for the Barbados contingent.

“Another unforgettable moment was coaching Barbados in World League Round One which was played under the auspices of the International Hockey Federation where we placed second above higher ranked teams and qualify for World League Round Two and had the opportunity to play against teams ranked in the top 25 in the world”, Hill said.

He believes that enough is not being done for sports in Barbados: “I believe a lot more can be done for sports in Barbados. Raw talent only gets you so far. Barbados needs a serious review and update of its sports facilities. There are plenty of opportunities for athletes to be exposed to a higher level of training and competition which is how you get better without going aboard all of the time. Barbados is geographically located in the Western Hemisphere; we have great weather, hotels, transport, and lovely people, but our facilities are not up to scratch. The 2028 Olympics are taking place in Los Angles, and countries are always looking for warm weather countries to train and use as their base. Unfortunately, Barbados cannot explore these opportunities because our facilities are poor”.

“Sports is a business, if you put in the investment, you will see the returns in both athletes as well as facilities. Sports tourism is a billion dollar, but Barbados is only limiting itself to the regional and United Kingdom markets and not pushing hard enough in the United States and Canadian markets. Those countries require greater investment in our sporting facilities to attract them here”, he added.

Hill who organized an international indoor hockey tournament in Barbados in 2005 said he is trying to stage the competition again at the Gymnasium.

“I have been trying to do it again, but I am getting resistance from officials at the Gymnasium, they don’t understand that indoor hockey is different game to field hockey; and responding to their concerns about damaging the floor of the Gymnasium are falling on the deaf ears of those who know about the sport. Although, they put two tons of stage on the same floor”, Hill said.

According to Hill, where Barbados have dropped the ball, countries like Trinidad with new facilities are going to capitalised and will host most of the games.

“Although Barbados is the favorite destination our sports facilities are not up to standard, and we are missing out on benefiting opportunities that available from sports, be that as it may, I will continue to work hard to develop sporting landscape of Barbados”, Hill said.

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