Lovie Santana-Duke will head this year's Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Team as Chef de Mission. GETTY IMAGES

Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) confirmed Thursday that Senior Administration officer Lovie Santana-Duke will serve as team TTO's Chef de Mission for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, taking place on 26 July until 11 August, Newsday reported.

Santana-Duke is to take on the role for the second time: serving as Chef de Mission in the Tokyo 2020 Games, after her role as Assistant Chef de Mission at the Games in Rio.

She has been TTOC's Senior Administrative Officer for over a decade and brings a wealth of experience with her. Aside from several Olympics under her belt, Santana-Duke headed the team at the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games in Colombia, as well as the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

The team is currently in "high preparation" mode and the TTOC is arranging a pre-games camp for the track and field athletes, as well as members of the swim team, the newly appointed head said. The tentative date for the pre-games athletics camp is 18-25 July.



"Our athletes continue to train tirelessly...they have shown dedication, perseverance, resilience and unwavering commitment to represent Trinidad and Tobago with honour and pride," Santana-Duke said.

TTOC president Diane Henderson expects Trinidad and Tobago to send approximately 20-35 athletes to the Olympics. With several athletes still doing their utmost to meet the varying Olympic qualifying standards before the end of June, Henderson said the team will be finalised early next month.

"We won't be able to do anything until July 8, which is the final day for submitting the team to the Olympic organising committee. After that time, that's when we'll be able to do the official announcement. We have quite a lot of educational aspects the athletes must go through," she said.



Trinidad and Tobago's 4x100-metre and men's 4x400m relay teams confirmed their spots for the Olympics last month in exciting fashion at the World Athletics Relay Championship in the Bahamas. 

Jereem Richards, who was a member of the 4x400m quartet, achieved the Olympic standard in the men's 200m event last week when he grabbed a gold medal at the Racers Grand Prix in Jamaica. 

Richards is expected to be among Trinidad and Tobago's medal hopefuls at the games, alongside swimmer Dylan Carter and sprint cycling phenom Nicholas Paul.