A spectacular opening ceremony marked the start of the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games attended by the Honourable Edwin Astwood, Minister of Health, Agriculture, Sports and Human Services. The Central American and Caribbean Games are organized by CACSO and is known as the first ancient, regional games recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The Turks & Caicos Islands was represented at the opening ceremony by Godfrey Been and Kevano Handfield, the flag bearer.

Mr. Steve Stoute, President of the ODECABE /CACSO Games, congratulated the local organizing committee for bringing the CACSO games to Barranquilla after 72 years and stated that they represented the best and indeed the largest of the CAC games ever. He also welcomed all Associate Member Countries who were participating for the very first time and added "I'm sure in the next few weeks we will be inspired by great performances, we will witness the expertise of personal best achievement, we will see records broken".

The official event was held at the Roberto Melendez Stadium in the host city of Barranquilla, Columbia with 37 participating countries and territories. A total of 6,000 athletes will compete across 40 categories of sport. The Turks and Caicos' team comprises eight athletes who will be competing in the following areas: High Jump, Long Jump, 400m, 100m, 200m, 4x1 relay and 4x4 relay.

During the games, Honourable Astwood met with a number of Columbian and CACSO Officials, Mr. Juan Manuel Santos, President of the Republic of Columbia, Mr. Alex Char, Mayor of Barranquilla, Mr. Steve Stoute, President of the CACSO Games and Mr. Baltazar Medina, the President of the Olympic Committee of Columbia. Minister Astwood also met and networked with other Caribbean stakeholders with the aim of building stronger relationships.

Hon. Astwood noted: "I am delighted that our Turks & Caicos Islands athletes can be part of such a grand sporting event, we know that this group of now seasoned athletes will perform well, and also expose millions of new persons to the TCI. This also takes us one step closer in participating in the Olympic Games, which is the ultimate for all athletes and the countries they represent. Not just because of sporting glory for the country but because of its ancient legacy and the underlying message that it spreads of all human as one irrespective of boundaries and nationalities."

The Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC) was formed in 2003 comprising NOCs of the Caribbean region in order to benefit from collective undertakings and sharing of resources. Commonwealth Games Associations (CGA) and similar overall sporting organizations from those countries that do not and currently cannot have National Olympic Committees (NOC) because of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Rules, was invited to become members of CANOC.

These games are designed to provide a step between sub-CACG-region Games held the first year following a Summer Olympics (e.g. Central American Games) and the Continental Championships, the Pan American Games, held the year before the Summer Olympics. A small steering committee was established in 2013 to advance the agenda of Turks and Caicos Island's eligibility in Olympic affiliated events and to secure CACSO approval. The TCI was able to qualify with Athletics, Football, Basketball, Sailing, Rugby, Swimming, Cycling, Softball, Tennis and Volleyball.

The Goal under the leadership of the Commonwealth Games Association (CGA) is to now gain affiliate membership with the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO), and International Islands Games Association (IIGA). Such affiliation will allow the TCI to compete in Olympic affiliate games and provide our sports teams and athletes alike an opportunity to prove to the IOC that a small dependent territory like the TCI has what it takes to compete at the Olympic level. With a showing of our continuous development in sport, we hope to lobby on behalf of all dependent territories, through the British Olympic Committee (BOC) for a change in IOC policy to allow dependent territories to become associate members.

This is indeed a great achievement for Turks and Caicos having obtained Associate membership into the Central American and Caribbean Games and for our athletes to be afforded such an opportunity to participate under the flag of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The Minister responsible for Sports was accompanied by his Deputy Secretary, Ms. Tamera Howell-Robinson, Director of Sports, Mr. Jarrett Forbes and his Executive Administrator, Mrs. Darlene Clerveaux-Forbes of the Ministry of Health, Agriculture Sports and Human Services