Olympic Committee says no competition age rule

The COCABA games in Cancun are the first in a series of competitions that lead to the 2012 Olympics in London. That begs the question, “Are the rules and regulations for a person or team representing Belize at the Olympics any different than the FIBA regulated COCABA games?” That’s what News Five Jose Sanchez asked a member of the Olympic Committee today. Not only it seems that the requirements are the same, but there aren’t any age requirements for acceptance of nationality.

Yolanda Fonseca, Belize Olympic Committee
“The qualification to go to represent the country is that, first and foremost, you must be a Belizean. If you have a Belizean passport, that is to say that your government has accepted you as a Belizean. So there is nothing that says that you have to show a record that you are naturalized or anything of that sort unless the country has required it. Once you bare the passport for being a Belizean, it is understood that you belong to Belize. The second requirement, that is most important, is the fact that the athlete should not have represented any other country for a minimum of three years.”

Jose Sanchez
“Does that mean that athlete can’t play in a competition at that country or they have to represent that country at a national level?”

Yolanda Fonseca
“To represent the country itself. For instance, if you’re going to be talking about representing a country, say for instance, in the United States. If that team is going to another country to represent the country then that person is affiliated to that country and therefore, they will have to wait three years before they are able to represent another country and of course, there are processes that take place.”

Jose Sanchez
“So if it’s just on a local team in the country itself…”

Yolanda Fonseca
“That is not a requirement. We have a number of people studying in the United States who participate representing their school and that is not a problem.”

Jose Sanchez
“I spoke to the Prime Minister today and he said that what they told him is that they did not accept nationality by the age of sixteen so they can’t play. After looking at the rule book, he could not find that rule.”

Yolanda Fonseca
“Exactly so. There is no rule that we are aware of where we can say that you have to be sixteen years old as a Belizean to say that you are a Belizean. There is no rule that we know of and we have taken other teams away and we haven’t had this presented to us in the past.”