On the Scene: 2015 Pan Am Vote, Rio Thanks, 36 Sports for Guadalajara 2011

11/6/2009

Pan Am Vote Today

Bogota, Lima and Toronto – in that order – are making their final pitches today for the 2015 Pan American Games.

They will each have 45 minutes followed by questions from the 42-member nations of the continental Olympic association.

The morning session of the PASO General Assembly in Guadalajara will be devoted to those presentations, followed in the afternoon by the secret ballot.

A simple majority is required among the 52 ballots, making 27 the magic number. Results should be known around 1600 central time.

Rio Thanks PASO in 1st Report

Just a month after winning the 2016 Olympics, leaders of Rio de Janeiro 2016 make their first international report to the Pan Am Sports Organization, the group that got Rio moving towards the Games by awarding the city the 2007 Pan Ams back in 2001.

Carlos Nuzman, president of Rio 2016, IOC member and Brazilian Olympic Committee President told delegates that the 2007 Pan American Games were a key ingredient in the success of the Olympic bid.

“Thank you my colleagues,” he said.

“We did not know in 1999 when we started the bid for the 2007 Pan American Games that it would lead to the Olympics,” he said, crediting PASO with helping provide the advice and support that led to the 2016 campaign.

PASO President Mario Vazquez Rana, eager to complete the day’s agenda at the PASO Assembly, hurried the Rio team of Nuzman and secretary general Carlos Osorio off the stage, cutting off any chance for questions. Neither did the PASO leader stop to savor the moment of Rio’s PASO homecoming, failing to pay homage to the Brazilians whose 2016 Games will help make PASO a most-important continental association for the next seven years.




Guadalajara 2011 Faces Doubts, Makes Promises

Guadalajara 2011 President Carlos Andrade Garin minced no words when it was his turn to speak at the PASO general assembly.

“Guadalajara has had problems. There have been problems in Guadalajara,” he said but promised that the games will be delivered in October 2011 “to the great satisfaction of PASO”.

Andrade was part of a three-hour presentation by the Guadalajara organizers punctuated by discussion amongst PASO delegates as to whether things were so bad that deserved the “red light” once threatened for Athens 2004 by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch.

With construction on the Olympic Village, athletics stadium and aquatics center still not expected to launch in early 2010, PASO delegates say they are fearful of what the final 23 months to the games will be like.

“We’re going to exert a bit more pressure,” Vazuez Rana told delegates when he decided he would add a fifth member to a commission that is supposed to review the work in Guadalajara on a weekly basis.

“Truth is difficult,” he said about the situation.

Guadalajara was the only city left in the race for the 2011 Pan Ams when the decision was made in 2006.

New Sports for 2011

Six more sports will be added to the program for the 2011 Pan Am Games following assurances that venues are available for the sports that have specialized needs.

Named to the program by acclamation at the PASO assembly were bowling, karate, pelota, roller sports, squash and water ski. The six are in addition to baseball, racquetball, rugby and softball, previously named to the 2011 program.

The six have been on the program in past Pan Ams, sometimes not the entire group. A decision had been expected on the sports program at the 2010 PASO Assembly.

That brings to 36 the number of sports on the Guadalajara program.

2010 PASO in Merida

Mexico will also host the 2010 PASO Assembly, a scant six months from now, in the Yucatan resort of Merida. No date has been set for the meeting in May.

But the Mexican wave of PASO meetings continues in 2011, when that year’s general assembly is scheduled for the eve of the Pan Am Games in October.

And Acapulco is the site for the 2010 meeting of Association of National Olympic Committees also headed by Vazquez Rana. The ANOC meeting will be scheduled in October. Attracting 205 NOCs, the biennial is always one of the largest Olympic gatherings on the calendar. The IOC Executive Board also meets during the ANOC meeting.

Written by Ed Hula.

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