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Bermudians become Olympic ambassadors in Greece

Brandon Sousa and Syriah Lottimore back in Bermuda

Two of Bermuda’s young sports officials, Syriah Lottimore and Brandon Sousa, have just returned from a two-week trip of a lifetime to Greece as part of the International Olympic Academy.

Sousa and Lottimore took part in the 65th Young Olympic Ambassadors programme and were the first Bermudians to ever participate in an initiative that brought together 155 people aged under 30 from 106 countries with the aim to encourage Olympic values in their own community.

Lottimore, who is a certified coach with the Bermuda Pacers athletics club, got the opportunity to run with the Olympic torch and is hoping to put her newly acquired knowledge into use in Bermuda.

“It was amazing and we definitely learnt a lot about the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect,” she said.

Syriah Lottimore runs with Olympic flame in Greece (photograph supplied)

“But more importantly we applied it to today’s world with AI technology and the future of sports. We did a lot of workshops and projects on how we feel that AI can impact sports for the better by using those three values.

“Most people think of AI as ChatGPT but it’s so much more than that. It’s a very big tool that is already being incorporated into sports. Everyone tends to run away from it because they feel it is taking away from human contact but there are different things that can be used to enhance the sport at local levels, such as accurate judging, enhancing fan experience and bringing countries together through coaching.”

Sousa was chosen to give the closing address on behalf of all the participants and the chance to take in the history of Greece, home to the ancient and modern Olympics, will live long in the memory.

“The first couple of days was going to visit some of the historical sites,” Sousa said.

“Our first stop was the modern Olympic Stadium and we all flooded in as Olympic ambassadors. Then we did the Acropolis and the Parthenon and when we got to Olympia we did the ancient Olympic Stadium.

“It is overwhelming at first and we didn’t know what to expect as we were the first people to ever go from Bermuda so we had nobody to talk to about it before we went. We got there and we found out that we were rooming with people from countries that we had never met a person from. I was with someone from Senegal and Syriah was with someone from Pakistan.”

Brandon Sousa gives closing address on behalf of participants (photograph supplied)

Sousa is co-president of the Bermuda Volleyball Association and is already using his experience to inform his actions back on island

“I’m the co-president of Bermuda volleyball so I am heavily involved with the international federation and I saw this as an opportunity to grow my experience,” he said.

“We went away not knowing what to expect but are coming back with a whole bunch of knowledge to hopefully be able to pass on to people here. We hope that we will not be the only people from Bermuda to go on this programme and we would like people from Bermuda to go every year. We are definitely advocates for finding the next Olympic ambassadors.

“It was good to have an open mind and listen to different outlooks and opinion on sport. Some people are for AI and some people are against it but it does have benefits and it doesn’t mean we take away the physical or human aspect of sport but help to increase sport participation globally. There are countries using AI in sport in so many different ways and in ways that I had no idea about.”

Syriah Lottimore and Brandon Sousa with outgoing IOC president Thomas Bach

Lottimore sees her future as working with youth in sport and her time in Greece has only solidified her views that she has a strong contribution to make.

“My long-term goal is to work in youth sports policy, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to learn as much as I can to bring back to Bermuda and help the next generation,” she said.

“That’s what Brandon and I are working on, to incorporate some kind of Olympic academy or ambassador programme for youth to become more engaged in sports.

“Sport brings people together and a goal of mine is to unite our community through sports or at least contribute to it.”

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Published July 01, 2025 at 11:57 am (Updated July 01, 2025 at 11:57 am)

Bermudians become Olympic ambassadors in Greece

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