(ATR) Toyota gave a check for $150,000 to the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) on Wednesday, the first check in a pledge of at least $750,000 worth of donations to be offered in the next five years.

The award will go into the TTOC’s #10golds24 Athlete Welfare and Preparation Fund. The funds were supplied by the Trinidad and Tobago branch of Toyota.

On top of monetary awards, the local Toyota branch will also offer internships to qualifying athletes. Internships in the areas of human resources, public relations, communications and sales will be made available. The company will offer ongoing training and education to the athletes.

Toyota will also be the official vehicle for the TTOC throughout the five year contract and could assist the NOC with promotional and advertising initiatives.

Earlier this year in March, the Toyota parent company signed a record $835 million deal with the IOC to be a top sponsor of the organization through the 2024 Olympics. They will have exclusive worldwide rights with the IOC beginning in 2017.

President of TTOC Brian Lewis says it is a bit surprising for a small NOC such as Trinidad and Tobago to receive such a deal from a worldwide Olympic sponsor.

“It usually happens in bigger NOCs, not usually in smaller NOCs, so Toyota T&T signing on to be a partner complements, so to speak, what is happening on worldwide basis but is a landmark deal for the TTOC and we would like to congratulate and welcome them on board,” he said.

Marketing manager for the local Toyota branch Sean Shaffie says they are forward thinking when it comes to Olympic sponsorship.

“Starting today, we will be supporting our local Olympic contingent via the TTOC in readiness for the Olympic Games in 2020, not only because our parent company is an official Olympic sponsor but it is part of our burning desire to coordinate and contribute to Olympic success for our very own athletes,” Shaffie said.

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COACH OF the Women’s Premier League champion team Boom Champions Fuego, Richard Hood, praised the squad for their successful campaign in the inaugural 2015 event.

The Fuego team drew 2-2 with CNGC Rush on Thursday night at the Police Barracks in St James, but the result was enough to see them lift the title, by virtue of a superior goal difference over runners-up Chancellor Angels.

“It feels great,” said Hood, moments after the hard-fought contest. “I think it’s a tremendous achievement for this team. I don’t think we were, by any means, the most talented team in the tournament but the girls worked really hard throughout.

“They did everything that I asked them to do, at least they tried to do it and I think particularly given as we had to play (on Wednesday) night and come back 24 hours and play again, a great achievement,” he added.

As far as the season was concerned, Hood commented, “for the Fuego team, it was a great season, it was a great tournament. Our girls were not the most technical players but they worked hard. When you have a team that everybody is working hard for each other, you can’t ask for more than that.”

In early July, the WPL went on a three-week break due to the absence of a number of national players, who were involved on international duty at the Pan Am Games in Toronto, Canada.

Asked how he kept the team focused during the lengthy inactive period, Hood responded, “we trained. We tried to improve their fitness levels because, at the beginning of the tournament, their level was very low, particularly the local girls. So we tried to improve their fitness levels and we tried to improve the tactical aspects of their game.”

He continued, “we did some things off the field to keep them away from the boredom. We played a couple of practice games and I think those were very useful.”

The WPL, the brainchild of Sports Minister Brent Sancho, was a hastily arranged competition, which Sancho mentioned was set up to keep the national players active, as well as provide top level competition for the local bunch.

Hood lauded the organisers for staging the games - free of charge - at a number of community grounds, including the Police Barracks, Sangre Grande Recreation Ground, Orange Grove Recreation Ground in Tacarigua, Maracas Recreation Ground in St Joseph, as well as the Palo Seco Recreation Ground.

“One of the things I like about this tournament is the idea of bringing it to a venue like this,” said the Fuego coach. “I think this was a great idea.”

However, if the WPL is to continue in 2016 and beyond, Hood admitted, “what I would love to see improved is the administrative part. The tournament could be well-planned in advance (and) teams would have an opportunity to prepare well.

“So a coach could always know that he is going into a game against whom ever, on a given day, and prepare accordingly,” he ended.

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International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach today announced that the IOC will launch a free, online education service aimed specifically at Olympians, other elite athletes and their coaches.

The new service, called “The IOC Athlete Learning Gateway”, will go live on 28 May during the 7th IOC Athlete Career Programme Forum in Lima, Peru.

For over a year, more than 4,000 athletes and coaches from around the world have been helping the IOC test and develop the pilot version of the experimental “MOOC” (massive open online courses). Leading academics, sports institutes, sports leaders and Olympians have contributed content for the programme, including courses and live online seminars.

President Bach said: “The long-term interests of athletes are a priority for the IOC. Through Olympic Agenda 2020, the IOC has a unique opportunity to act as a bridge between busy athletes and the world’s best academics and learning tools. The IOC Athlete Learning Gateway will allow athletes to shape their futures while still pursuing their athletic careers.”

Recommendation 18 of Olympic Agenda 2020, the IOC’s strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement, calls for support to athletes to be strengthened. This includes the development of athlete career programmes with all the relevant stakeholders and increasing engagement with athletes on important topics related to their careers on and off the field of play.

“This is just one of many important new initiatives being driven by the Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms, which will strengthen and improve support for the athletes,” said IOC Athletes’ Commission Chair and Athens 2004 silver medallist Claudia Bokel. “This inspiring free electronic platform will give athletes, wherever they may be in the world and at whatever stage of their athletic career, access to educational material produced by leading academics and athletes. This is an important step forward for the welfare of athletes.”

IOC Entourage Commission Chair and Seoul 1988 gold medallist Sergey Bubka said: “The life of an athlete is extremely busy: they are constantly on the road; they spend a lot of time training. It is very difficult to find the time to study, to properly prepare for life after sport. But thanks to the many changes brought about by Olympic Agenda 2020, athletes will continue to be given more and more opportunities like the IOC Athlete Learning Gateway. This online tool gives athletes the means to successfully combine sport and education for brighter futures.”

The pilot programme for the IOC Athlete Learning Gateway was evaluated by the IOC’s Athletes’ Commission, Entourage Commission and a dedicated independent Academic Advisory Board. The IOC President agreed with their recommendation to establish the full service as part of Olympic Agenda 2020.

To view the pilot service, click here. A new link to The IOC Athlete Learning Gateway will be published on 28 May along with more information about the new service.

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The International Olympic Committee is a not-for-profit independent international organisation made up of volunteers, which is committed to building a better world through sport. It redistributes more than 90 per cent of its income to the wider sporting movement, which means that every day the equivalent of USD 3.25 million goes to help athletes and sports organisations at all levels around the world.

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It was mightily close but there was no upset.

Embarrassing technical glitches meant it needed a re-vote conducted the old-fashioned way; but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) today heeded their heads over their hearts and elected Beijing as host of the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Chinese capital is set duly to become the first city in history to host both a Summer and Winter Olympics.

It was always likely that members would adopt a cautious approach in what IOC President Thomas Bach described at the Session’s Opening Ceremony as “difficult times in sport”.

It is, nonetheless, worth pausing to reflect on the remarkable shift that has transformed the Chinese capital into a safe pair of hands for the guardians of the Olympic brand and values.

Fourteen years ago, at the IOC Session in Moscow where Beijing won the right to host the 2008 Summer Games against a field that included Toronto, Paris, Istanbul and Osaka, the decision was viewed widely as daring and risky for the Movement, on grounds that it would be portrayed as a case of putting money above principles.

Such criticisms are far more muted today.

That is not to say that the Chinese bid’s commercial appeal did not play a significant part in its success.

We were told this week that the bid was projecting to generate $660 million (£423 million/€604 million) from domestic sponsorship; I would be surprised if, in fact, the final total were not a great deal closer to the $1 billion-plus (£640 million/€910 million) notched up by the Sochi 2014 Winter Games.

The Chinese capital’s ‘safe pair of hands status’ also owes something to the list of casualties which fell by the wayside during the course of this less-than-compelling race.

Beijing and Almaty truly were the last two bids left standing.

How the IOC must be hoping - however well Almaty acquitted themselves in the final stages of this race - that some traditional old West European winter sports cities will present themselves when the time comes for the 2026 Winter Games contest.

In addition to its stellar sponsorship performance, Sochi’s legacy also includes the stonking general infrastructure spend that arguably did more than any other single factor to put European citizens off bidding and produce the change of thinking we now know as Olympic Agenda 2020.

The choice of Beijing sits less well with this new way of presenting the complex business of putting on the greatest pageant in world sport, since one senses a tension between China’s justifiable national pride in, say, its reputed Ұ800 billion (£82 million/$129 billion/€118 billion) a year budget for high-speed rail infrastructure and Agenda 2020’s ‘less is more’ attitude.

A safe pair of hands it may be, but the selected Beijing project is not without risk for the IOC - a factor that may well explain the unexpectedly close vote.

While everyone is confident China will get the job done, I sense no great love for this undertaking.

Should issues arise, as they nearly always do, be they over an overarching matter such as human rights, or something much more specific, such as lack of compactness, or indeed snow, the IOC may find that they quickly generate publicity unhelpful to its efforts to ginger up interest among as wide a range of cities as possible in hosting multi-sports events.

For now, however, attention will quickly switch back to the IOC’s much more sought-after flagship summer product - both Rio 2016, now the Next Big Thing, and an intriguing incipient race for 2024 set to unfold over the next two years.

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Lausanne will host the 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games after overcoming Romanian rival Brașov in a two-horse race, it has been announced today.

The Swiss city, home to the IOC headquarters since 1915 and considered the "Olympic Capital", duly becomes the third host of the event following an inaugural event in Innsbruck in 2012 and next year's edition scheduled for Lillehammer in Norway.

They won by a huge margin of 71 votes to 10.

Lausanne, which was praised in particular for its good use of existing, temporary and demountable venues, was the heavy favourite leading into the contest following a lacklustre performance by its Romanian rival.

It was helped by a strong and emotive presentation showcasing the sporting credentials of Switzerland and utilising home-grown sporting stars including tennis players Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka.

“What a beautiful gift to celebrate the 100 years of Olympism in Lausanne!" said the city's Mayor Daniel Brélaz afterwards.

"Lausanne, Olympic city, a sport city, a young city: it is a perfect mix, and I am extremely proud that the IOC recognised it."

"Now, let’s get to work!”

The Games are set to be held between January 10 and 19 in 2020, with over 1,000 teenage athletes set to compete.

A review of sports, disciplines and events will take place after the February's Games in the Norwegian resort, with the overall list of events to be completed approximately three years beforehand.

“Sixty-seven years after the Winter Games in St. Moritz, it is a great honour to have contributed in bringing the Games back to Switzerland," added bid leader and International Olympic Committee member Patrick Baumann.

"This project has enormous potential for a country that has snow sports in its DNA.

"I am convinced that this is the start of a great journey.”

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