Saint Lucian Mia George is making significant strides in the world of sports.
The former table tennis and basketball athlete turned sports business professional holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Sports Business Management.
Her love for basketball blossomed into an internship with the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Toronto Raptors, which led to her current role in Ghana, contributing to sports development.
In a recent interview on the Game Changers Podcast, George shared advice for upcoming sports professionals aspiring to make it on the world stage.
“My advice would be to start small and build, especially in Saint Lucia,” she said. “When it comes to the athlete side, I think that has already kind of mapped out itself. You get involved at a club level or at the school level, and then you kind of just build your way from there.”
“But the sports management, sports administrative, and sports science side is a little different in the sense that you kind of have to form your own path, so to speak. That’s how I feel about it. There’s no one way to do it. I decided to go the psychology-sports business side, but there are so many other ways that you could go about it. And so it’s very much a trial-and-error process. Like I said, I would advise anybody to start small.”
George also highlighted the potential of sports as a tool for economic development at the local level, particularly in the wake of Julien Alfred’s recent Olympic success. She believes that sports tourism, infrastructure development, and management should be top priorities.
“Sports tourism should not be too far down on the list of [focuses],” she said. “When I say sports tourism, I talk about hosting bigger events. So, for example, we heard the minister saying [something] about hosting a Julien Alfred Classic. Recently, we had a netball Caribbean tournament in Saint Lucia. Having more tournaments and more opportunities like that for athletes to come into Saint Lucia or for people, in general, to come into Saint Lucia to be around sport.”
“When we are given these infrastructures, us as a people, we need to take care of it and not, you know, vandalize or destroy, [but] ensure that we take some pride in what we have. On the other hand, we do need better infrastructure in terms of more spaces that are readily available to host games and tournaments and stuff like that, where we don’t need to, just before the tournament is coming up, pump so much money into ensuring that the area is ready.”
George is also managing a social initiative in Saint Lucia called “Bringing Buckets Home,” which supports less fortunate families, and she is a co-founder of the Net Blazers Basketball Club.
She continues to be a trailblazer for Saint Lucian sports professionals on the international stage.
