Miami and PanamSports Enter New Era

(ATR) Banners now announce sales of trips to Cuba when entering the Miami International Airport, a stark contrast from my first visit to Miami 30 years ago.

Thirty years ago, I flew in to Miami from Cuba on the way to the 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis. Coincidentally, those Games were the last event organized by the United States for the Pan American Sports Organization.

So when I once again landed in the so-called capital of Cuban exiles for the Americas Best Practices Symposium hosted by the U.S. Olympic Committee, my first question to the recently inaugurated PanamSports president Neven Ilic, was – "why not Miami"?

"It could be [a Pan Am Games host]," Ilic told Around the Rings. "We are open to receiving different proposals to have the Games. I think Miami could be a great city to host them.

"It is better to wait and see what happens, but it would be good for ODEPA to receive such a proposal," the PanamSports chief said.

Many of the delegates representing the 41 National Olympic Committees of PanamSports were skeptical that Miami would be a host city in the near future. Although the opening of new PanamSports offices in Miami this July could help a potential bid, leaders say the unwritten geographical rotation of the Games used in the past may be retired.

South America is hosting the next two editions with Lima 2019 and Santiago 2023 and a bid for 2027 from Buenos Aires, Argentina could be in the works. Buenos Aires originally submitted a bid for 2023 but dropped from contention in the early stages of bidding.

The symposium in Miami also provided knowledge-sharing opportunities for veterans of the Olympic Movement in the Americas. For Mexican Olympic Committee president and PanamSports vice president Carlos Padilla, the symposium emphasized the need for greater accountability and transparency in leadership and the need for modern training systems for their athletes.

Padilla is also one of the vice presidents of the Central American and Caribbean Sports Organization (CACSO) that is currently acting without a president following the death of president Héctor Cardona just one day after the conclusion of the meeting in Miami.

The former Puerto Rico Olympic Committee president was also serving his fourth term as CACSO president. The current first vice-president of CACSO, Steve Stoute of Barbados, will likely succeed him. If he cannot, Padilla would step in according to sources familiar with the situation.

CACSO is committed to the organization of the Central American and Caribbean Games scheduled for Barranquilla, Colombia in 2018. ATR is told that at the next meeting of the Executive Committee in July, Cardona's successor will be chosen to ensure stability for the event. Whoever takes over would serve until 2019.

President of the Colombian Olympic Committee Baltazar Medina traveled to San Juan to pay posthumous tribute to the former president of CACSO and had recognized to ATR the key role Cardona played to bring the regional games to Barranquilla back in 2014.

Medina said that the event, for which he expects more than 6,000 athletes, will break a historic record in the number of countries, athletes and disciplines at the games scheduled for July 20 to Aug. 5. Medina told ATR he hopes that they will become "the best games of the history".

One night during the symposium, delegates were invited to Marlins stadium, home of the Major League Baseball team. Among them was Roberto León Richards, a vice president of the Cuban Olympic Committee who is also the first vice president of the state sports institute (Inder).

I came back to Miami 30 years later to witness a new era of continental sport. Despite the fact that U.S. President Donald Trump was offering harsh criticisms of the Cuban and American relationship in "Little Havana" while I was in Miami, I was convinced that, regardless of the political circumstances between countries in the region, the USOC doors will remain wide open to the continental sports family.

Written by Miguel Hernandez and translated by Kevin Nutley.

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