Kingston, 10 July 2025 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has said that “it’s all systems go” for Jamaica to host its first-ever day-night Test match at Sabina Park.

This evening (Thursday), Minister Grange said “all infrastructure is in place” ahead of the historic Test between West Indies and Australia which starts on Saturday afternoon.

Minister Grange said: “The [Jamaica Cricket Association] president has advised that Cricket West Indies indicated that the lighting expert has verified that the newly installed lights have met the required standard. [They’ve] been calibrated and refocused and everything is now in place.”

The Minister also said that the new display boards will also be ready for the match.

“The large panel is up and everything is in place. The smaller panel within the next 24 hours will be ready as the software is now being installed.”

Minister Grange is encouraging Jamaicans to come rally ‘round the West Indies and be part of history.

“I would say it’s all systems go. And I want to encourage the public to come out and support cricket, lovely cricket.”

END

Kingston, 14 July 2021 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has said that the sport sector will benefit directly from vaccines now in the island and from more which will come in tomorrow.

The Sport Minister said:

“Six Hundred doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine have come as donation through the efforts of the former coach of the Reggae Girls, Mr Hugh Menzies, and 300 more doses will arrive in the island tomorrow through the efforts of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Honourable Kamina Johnson Smith and the Chairman of the National Health Fund, Mr Howard Mitchell.

These vaccines are specifically for the use of the sport sector and I really want to thank Mr Menzies for securing the 600 doses primarily for the Jamaica Premier League.

I am happy to report that the majority of athletes going to the Tokyo Olympics have been vaccinated with only a small number who has not been. Now with the single dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine, all can be fully vaccinated before going off to Japan. Athletes who are not vaccinated will be treated differently in Tokyo from those who are and this could negatively affect their activities.

Those who are not yet vaccinated know themselves and I know them too and so I am reaching out and making a special appeal to them to get their jab.”

Meantime, Mr Mitchell said he was pleased that the NHF was able to contribute to the vaccines being available by facilitating customs clearance.

Arrangements are in place for vaccinations to start at the Mona Ageing and Wellness Centre, University of the West Indies, tomorrow, July 15, at 1:30 p.m.

END

Kingston, 10 June 2021 (JIS) - The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, says the Government continued to invest in improving the country’s sport infrastructure, even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

“In spite of the pandemic, we were working. We used the opportunity to do things that did not involve large gatherings and to get the infrastructure up to date during the slow period,” she said, during her contribution to the 2021/22 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representative, on June 8.

Providing an update, Minister Grange informed that the Government is procuring a new pump for the pool at the National Aquatic Centre, which should arrive and be installed by the end of the month. 

“In the meantime, we hired divers to clean the pool, so that our aquatic athletes are still able to use the facility,” she said.

Minister Grange further informed that the running track inside the National Stadium was recently resurfaced at a cost of $60 million. 

“The track manufacturers also created and installed an outdoor basketball court made especially for Jamaica. We will monitor the performance of that surface… to see if it will be a suitable [material] to replace the outdoor netball courts, which are currently far from ideal,” she said. 

In the meantime, the Minister informed that the Government continues to pursue the redevelopment of the National Stadium and the Trelawny Stadium.

Our development proposal, which is currently going through the Public Investment Management system, will see both facilities being transformed over a period of five years into modern stadia with state-of-the-art facilities that will be able to sustain their operations. In fact, the Trelawny Stadium will be at the centre of sports tourism and entertainment,” she said.

Minister Grange further noted that the Government is continuing to invest in facilities at the grassroots level, pointing out that during the last financial year, $117 million was spent through the Sports Development Foundation Jamaica to put in and upgrade sports facilities in 20 schools and communities. 

On another matter, the Minister said “our major challenge and greatest success” during the difficult period was working with the various federations to achieve the safe reopening of the sport sector. 

“The well-designed protocols have served to keep our athletes, coaches and officials safe. The Ministry has also facilitated the vaccination of several of our athletes and coaches as they get ready for local and international competitions,” Minister Grange noted.

She encouraged Jamaicans to continue to observe the protocols, “whether they are vaccinated or not”, and urged athletes who are not yet vaccinated to do so now. 

END

Kingston, 9 June 2021 (JIS) - The Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission is now fully compliant with the World Anti-Doping Agency.

“What this means is that Jamaica’s credibility can no longer be questioned when it comes to doping in sports,” said Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange.

She was making her contribution to the 2021/22 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on June 8.

She also informed that the JADCO 2021 rules have been prepared, sent for gazetting and will soon come into effect.

“I urge athletes and their coaches to get familiar with the new rules, as they most certainly will get familiar with JADCO’s new mobile unit, which is one of only two mobile anti-doping testing facilities in the world. The unit has been put to use at athletics meets taking place at the National Stadium,” Minster Grange said.

Meanwhile, the Minister informed that the Institute of Sports (INSPORTS), has prepared Annual Reports covering the periods 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20.

“Pending an audit, I expect to table the reports in the House once approved by Cabinet,” Minister Grange said.

In addition, despite the pandemic, INSPORTS is still fulfilling its mandate of developing sports at the grassroots.

The Minister said that last year, the entity staged its popular summer sports programme in small groups across the island featuring netball, football, cricket, tennis, golf, surfing and other disciplines and will do so again this year.

“INSPORTS is also developing a virtual Physical Education Programme to be broadcast on air and online,” Ms. Grange told the House.

END

Kingston, 9 April 2021 - Registration will open on Thursday, April 15, 2021, for the forum which will start the mental health programme being conducted by Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport to help the nation’s athletes to cope with the effects of covid-19.

The forum with the theme, Elevate the Game…Building the Muscle of the Mind of Jamaica, will look at mental resilience in sport and sport performance post-covid-19.

The Registration period will run from April 15 up to April 21, the day of the event, until half an hour prior to the start.

Applicants should download the Whova app from the App Store for iPhone users and from the Play Store for Android users. A link will be sent directly to the applicant after registration is completed. The applicant will then be able to access the webinar. Registration is complimentary via a #MCGESgamechanger ticket.
 
There will be use of subtitles for the hearing impaired athletes.

In her earlier announcement of the mental health programme for Jamaican athletes, Minister Grange said: “The covid-19 pandemic has seriously disrupted the lives and livelihood of our athletes, coaches, and their support staff; and we feel that it is extremely important to provide them with the support.

“We’ve provided financial support and we also think that they need support through a mental health programme to help them to deal with the existing situation,” said Minister Grange.

Minister Grange said the Ministry was staging the forum in collaboration with Optimisation Hub, which operates out of Australia. They have worked closely with the Olympics and other international bodies in these matters. Our local partners include mental health specialists such as psychologists and psychiatrists, led by Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr Saphire Longmore.

Dr Longmore is available to provide counselling and information that any athlete, coach, or federation/association may require.

The mental health programme is the latest in a series of actions by the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport to “assist athletes, coaches, and their support teams to go through this trying period,” Minister Grange said.

The Sport Minister said the Ministry will continue to provide financial support to the sports sector.

END

Doha QATAR, 6 October 2019 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has praised the Jamaican team for “a job well done” at the IAAF Championships with ended today (Sunday) in Doha.

“I think it was a very good showing by Jamaica and we must congratulate and encourage all members of the team who represented our country with such heart, determination, courage and dignity,” said Minister Grange.

The Jamaicans finished third on the medals table with three gold, five silver and four bronze medals.

Jamaica won three medals on the final day of the World Championships when the men’s 4x400 relay team of Akeem Bloomfield, Nathon Allen, Terry Thomas, and Demish Gaye took silver behind the United States team.

The team of Anastasia Le-Roy, Tiffany James, Stephenie Ann McPherson, and Shericka Jackson took the bronze in the women’s 4X400 won by the United States with Poland second.

And Danielle Williams took the bronze in the 100 metre hurdles with Janeek Brown placing 7th.

Minister Grange said:
“Jamaica athletes won 12 medals across disciplines on the track and in the field and I’m very proud of our performances. There were disappointments and setbacks, but we also witnessed awesome achievements on which we will continue to build. I congratulate each member of the team, including the coaching and support staff, for a job well done.”

Minister Grange also used her visit to Doha to advance discussions with the leadership of the IAAF regarding the possibility of Jamaica hosting a major athletic event in 2023.

Minister Grange also met with her Kenyan counterpart to discuss initiatives to operationalise the sports, culture and heritage cooperation agreement which was signed between both countries last August in Kingston.

Under the agreement, Jamaica and Kenya will cooperate in organising major sporting events, collaborate on sports science as well as develop an exchange programme for coaches and teachers of physical education, among other initiatives.

END

Kingston, 26 September 2019 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has said that “A Monitoring and Evaluation mechanism which is being designed in Jamaica to measure the contribution of Sport to the national economy represents ground-breaking progress”.

Minister Grange made the statement at a workshop yesterday during which participants work on the design of a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for use by stakeholders in Sport. The workshop was led by Andy Preece, consultant from the Commonwealth Secretariat in the United Kingdom.

The Sport Minister told representatives attending from 32 organisations concerned with Sport that “I want to thank you for your involvement from the beginning of this process. It began here in Jamaica with the first National Stakeholder Forum in October 2018, where we introduced the concept of being able to measure the contribution of sport to national development and to the economy.

She said the intention was to develop sport specific indicators that would assist in measuring the impact that the sector has on Jamaica’s development as a country.

“We have to take deliberate actions to position sport, physical activity and physical education as major contributors to our respective national development agendas and ultimately to achieve the international development goals. In almost every sector, sport is used for non-sport outcomes. We use it to keep fit, to mobilize communities for action, as a peace-building tool, for fun, as entertainment, for upward mobility, to earn - but we seldom stop to take stock of how that affects us."

The Monitoring and Evaluation mechanism will also help to identify some of the gaps in sport development.

“We are working with stakeholders such as yourselves, for example, to explore regulatory mechanism for safeguarding sport from corruption, which is a worldwide epidemic. We are working with entities such as the Betting Gaming and Lotteries Commission and the CTOC to ensure that our athletes are protected from illegal trafficking in persons and matters relating to match fixing.

“This framework therefore is a game changer! While it is being championed by my Ministry its success depends on your inputs and commitment.”

“But, ladies and gentlemen, as our key stakeholders and partners in national development through sport, the work doesn’t stop here. We expect that having benefitted from your feedback, we will rationalize and finalise the framework which will then be accompanied by an implementation plan which we will need your help to implement."

Minister Grange thanked the Commonwealth Secretariat for working alongside Jamaica, noting that it was an exchange because “the Secretariat was learning from us as much as we are learning from them.
“The partnership is mutually beneficial as Jamaica sits on the Commonwealth Advisory Body on Sport and in a few days will be sharing our experience with the development of a monitoring and evaluation framework for sport. Not only that, but Jamaica’s role as a pilot country in the development and use of the broader Commonwealth sport indicators well noted and applauded,” the Sport Minister concluded.

END

Kingston, 11 September 2019 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, announced today that a group of investors from Canada that are “standing by” to build an ice rink along with a bob-sled practice track and an 800-room boutique hotel on Jamaica’s north coast.

Minister Grange spoke at the press conference called by the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Administration (JAAA) to announce Jamaica’s team to the 2019 IAAF World Championships in Doha, Qatar, later this month.

“At this time, I will not say exactly where on the North Coast but will do so soon. The ice rink will facilitate tournaments and pre-season training. The investors are ready right now to sign a memorandum of understanding to get the activity going. They will be visiting Jamaica shortly.”

The sport Minister said Jamaica became a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation in May 2012, the first Caribbean nation to do so. “But in order to compete at the Winter Olympics the country must have at least one ice rink and a development programme,” she said.

The Sport Minister also congratulated Jamaica’s Senior Men’s Ice Hockey team once again for creating history by winning the AmeriGol-Latam Cup on Sunday in Coral Springs, Florida in the USA.
“It was a splendid performance as Jamaica continues to show the rest of the world how good we can be in sports which are not traditional to us.”

END

Kingston, 29 October 2018 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has congratulated the Sunshine Girls who went down by one point to New Zealand in the Fast5 Netball World Series gold medal match in Melbourne, Australia on the weekend.

New Zealand managed to hold off a late surge by the Sunshine Girls to win 34-33.

Minister Grange congratulated the Sunshine Girls for “a very successful tournament in which they demonstrated the strength of Jamaica’s netball and represented our country well.”

Earlier in the tournament, Jamaica defeated New Zealand by a single point (23-22).

It’s the second successive year that the Sunshine Girls are taking home the silver medal from the Fast5 World Series.  They went down to England in last year’s final.

“I know the Sunshine Girls prepared very hard for this tournament and I know they really wanted to take home the gold medal this year.  But we can all be proud that they gave their best and will continue to give their all while representing our country.  We must give them our full support.  I offer congratulations to all the girls as well as the coaching and support teams of Netball Jamaica,” said Minister Grange.

-END-