House Speaker Wade Mark yesterday suggested that a date be considered to recognise and pay tribute to all Caribbean athletes who have excelled in sport.

In Parliament yesterday, Mark as well as Sport Minister Anil Roberts and Opposition MP Donna Cox paid tribute to all athletes who competed in the 2012 London Olympics, in particular gold medallist Keshorn Walcott.

Following the passage of the Financial Intelligence Unit Bill, Mark extended his warmest congratulations, saying the athletes have made this country proud in the year of its jubilee anniversary.

"The Caribbean, as a small part of the universe, has done us proud as a people and we have to consider in the future some date in our calendar when we can recognise all our Caribbean athletes and I look forward to the day when we can lift the spirit, inspire our youths in particular where we can bring them together from island to island and lift them to higher heights," said Mark.

He said the Sport Ministry and the Government must continue to provide the necessary resources for athletes as they continue training to compete in the Olympics 2016 in Brazil.

Roberts said the performance of the Trinidad and Tobago athletes at the London Olympics was the greatest ever in the history of its participation in the games.

He said Walcott was coached by the Cuban national Ismael Lopez, who the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago had brought in specifically to train athletes for the Olympic Games.

Walcott, he said, had won a gold medal in the World Junior javelin competition in Barcelona and then went on to Wales, where the Government footed the entire bill for continued training, nutrition and psychological nurturing of athletes.

Roberts said Walcott then proceeded to London, where he broke the national record and had all hearts in Trinidad and Tobago palpitating.

Cox said Walcott did this country proud in bringing home gold some 36 years after Hasely Crawford did.

She said it was a happy moment in seeing Trinidad and Tobago's national flag hoisted in London and hearing its national anthem played at the Olympics in a year when the 50th anniversary of Independence is being celebrated.