Katura Horton-Perinchief said she was “honoured and humbled” to have been named to the Women and Sport Commission of the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees.

The former Bermuda Olympian, who is on the board of the Bermuda Olympic Association and chairwoman of the Athletes’ Commission and the BOA Women In Sport Committee, will sit on the Canoc Commission until 2018.

Horton-Perinchief, the only Bermudian to have been selected to sit on a Canoc board, is “very excited” by the prospect of serving the region’s athletes and said it gave her “a unique opportunity to put some girls in the forefront” of the administrative process.

“That’s what our committee [in Bermuda] has been trying to do,” she said. “It’s just sort of bringing awareness to the fact that there is a discrepancy with respect to opportunity [for women] and other such things. I’m hoping I can bring at least some experience from that view point and also as a female athlete.”

As an athlete, Horton-Perinchief represented the Island for ten years on the international stage, competing at the Commonwealth Games in 2002 and 2006, the Pan Am Games in 2003 and 2007, and the 2004 Olympics. The first black female to compete in Olympic diving, she knows what it is to break through barriers.

“I was lucky because we do well as women in diving,” she said, “but a lot of my friends are in the Women’s National Basketball Association and they certainly aren’t making millions. I have good friends who are track runners and they are not making what the boys make.

“To be able to look at it [sport] as a career is something new for girls, I think. Little boys always say, ‘I’m going to be a football player when I grow up’, but you don’t see a lot of little girls saying that, and they can be.

“I’m hoping to be able to bring at least that part from Bermuda there [to the Commission].”

Horton-Perinchief’s appointment has been welcomed by Judy Simons, the BOA president, who believes the former Olympian will bring an “important perspective to Canoc deliberations”.

“We congratulate Katura on her appointment and we thank her for her ongoing commitment to helping promote girls’ and young women’s participation in sports in Bermuda,” Simons said. “With her background as an elite athlete and coach, she will be an excellent representative for the BOA and a strong advocate for our female athletes.”

As an administrator, Horton-Perinchief has already served as chef de mission for Bermuda’s team at the 2014 Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China, and assistant chef de mission at the 2014 CAC Games in Veracruz, Mexico.

Her appointment to Canoc was also welcomed by Patricia Gordon-Pamplin, Minister of Community Culture and Sports, who said it was “well deserved”.

“Katura was undoubtedly appointed because of her outstanding knowledge of women’s sports and her experience as an elite athlete,” Gordon-Pamplin said. “Well done to Katura, and hearty congratulations on this milestone.”