Two weeks ago, Alexander Chapman, immediate past president of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee, was presented with the beautiful gold Pan American Olympic Collar and accompanying gilt edged plaque, by Mario Vasquez Rana, President of the Pan American Sports Organisation (PASO), in Mexico City.
The award, the highest distinction of the Olympic Movement in America, is given to persons who contribute, or who have contributed, with their work and efforts to the enhancement of the Olympics in our continent.
Chapman, who is currently serving his second four-year term as the south zone representative on PASO's Executive Committee attended the Mexico meeting at which Rio de Janeiro received the nod as host city for the Pan Am Games in 2007. The Dominican Republic has already been awarded the 2003 Games.
Chapman went to his first Pan American Games in 1959 as weightlifting coach to the then West Indies weightlifting team, again in 1963 as coach to the national weightlifters, and has to this day attended all the Games, except the first two in 1951 and 1955.
From 1963 when he became secretary of the TTOC he was our representative at every Congress, and for the past six years has been there as an Executive Member of PASO. But, he says with his dry wit "yet if there is no TTOC representative on hand to vote for the TTOC, I still find myself being called on to vote for Trinidad and Tobago." Sitting in Chapman's Trophy Room, it is difficult to decide on either the most prestigious or most beautiful award given to this man who has served the National Olympic Committee for more than 50 years, starting with representation for the Weightlifting Association of Trinidad and Tobago. One gets the impression that the Olympic Order, a platinum wreath of laurel leaves - a symbol long associated with the Olympic Games - which he received in 1996 for his contribution to Sports and the Olympic Movement, is specially treasured.
Another Olympic award looms on the horizon for Chapman, who will be the recipient of the Association of National Olympic Committees Merit Award at the Athens, Greece Olympics in the year 2004. How did Chapman's lifelong affair with the National Olympic Committee start? "I was into weight lifting with the Lighthouse Boys Barbell Club on Duke Street, but was not very good at the actual sport as opposed to others representing the club, so I was chosen to represent the club at meetings of the Weight Lifting Association of Trinidad and Tobago and moved on to the NOC." In 1959, Chapman was a member of the West Indies Olympic Committee which took charge of Caribbean sport during the life of the Federation. In 1961 he returned to the National Olympic Committee and became assistant secretary in 1962; Secretary General for 26 years from 1963; President for two four year terms; and is now Immediate Past President for eight years, ending in 2005.
Were it not for the eligibility rule that prevents a TTOC president from running for more than two terms in office, I am sure that Chapman may still have been at the helm of the National Olympic body. Simply because he says "I enjoy it all and continue to enjoy it. I only hope and wish that when I can no longer function that I do not want to stay on. It is something that grows on you and I have to be careful." Chapman has the full support of his beloved wife, Margarita, who once a year faithfully dusts and cleans every trophy and picture in the room.
As Vice President of the Commonwealth Games Federation for the Caribbean Regions, where he is serving a third four-year term in office, Chapman has just returned from official duties at the recent Manchester Games where he handed out medals, and was asked to open the Technical Committee meetings of hockey and weightlifting. Chapman is also serving a second four-year term as a Vice President of the Central American and Caribbean Sports Organisation, having previously served as a member of the Executive for four years.
To top it all off, Chapman has been Chef de Mission/Asst Chef de Mission to the Olympic Games in 1956, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984 and 1988.