Lima 2019 Using Toronto as Guide to Hosting Pan Ams

(ATR) Peru NOC president Jose Quiñones tells Around the Rings that Lima is watching Toronto closely as it prepares to host the 2019 Pan American Games.

"We are learning from this experience: trying to copy what we can copy, improve what we can improve to have a better games in Lima," Quiñones tells ATR.

Aspects Quiñones would like to emulate include the online presence and dissemination of information that he says have been excellent in these games.

"One of the strongest points of this event has been the systems technology because you can find information online in time. The web page is good and the screens are doing well. I think all of the information necessary for the technical officials, for the athletes and the public is one of the best in recent games," Quiñones tells ATR.

However, he does note that there have been some small issues with transportation during the games but that they have been resolved quickly.

"Transportation is one of the key issues in all games. You saw in Baku, the problem there was unfortunately an accident, and we had problems in London with transportation. We believe by our recent experience that it may be sometimes better to hire professional drivers instead of using volunteers," he says.

"We have been to many games. Of course volunteers are well received but people, officials, volunteers, athletes and leaders of the federations, organization and NOCs need to get on time always," Quiñones continues.

Quiñones says another thing Lima would like to do differently is decrease the distance between venues.

"In Lima, we want to have all the venues not more than 50 minutes from the village and more than half within the first 20 minutes. That is our goal, but it is not so simple in a 10 million person city."

He says all but one venue would likely be able to fall into this category, as canoe slalom will take place at a natural river in Peru outside of these limits. Toronto also used a natural river for their canoe slalom event, which athletes from team Canada said is better than man-made courses. Lima will likely use a separate village for this sport.

Lima offered almost $11 billion in transportation projects to improve roads and the underground metro when they bid for these games, according to Quiñones. He says almost 80 to 90 percent of the contracts for these projects have already been signed and the construction will be ready well before the games begin in 2019. The improved infrastructure will allow for a more compact games.

Quiñones also says Lima will have a lot of event hosting practice before the Pan Ams come to Lima four years from now.

"From this year to next year we have around 33 international events because we are preparing not only our athletes but also our national federations and the organizing committee to have the best ever if possible Pan American Games in 2019. We are practicing and practicing and practicing every day," Quiñones tells ATR.

Lima will host the IOC session in 2017 where the 2024 Summer Games host will be chosen. There will also be an Olympism in Action Congress the day after the session.

To prepare for the session, a team of seven members from Lima are going to the IOC session in Kuala Lumpur this week. They are also bringing several interested company representatives with them to the session to begin the bidding process to help organize the Lima session.

"We think the level of this event requires an international company with experience in this event because this has to be the best ever IOC session," Quiñones says.

Other than the IOC session, Lima will host a few multi-sport games and individual sport championships over the course of the next few years. Two notable tournaments are the South American beach games with over 1,000 athletes and the Bolivian Juke Games, a new competition featuring 27 of the 28 Olympic sports and over 3,000 athletes.

Prior to the SportAccord Convention in Sochi, Russia earlier this year, Lima was also slated to host the third edition of the World Combat Games, a tournament organized by SportAccord. Quinones told ATR before the convention these games in 2017 would help give the Pan Am organizers good experience with a multi-sport event with athletes participating from around the world.

However, during the first day of the convention the former president of the organization Marius Vizer gave a scathing attack on the IOC and its policies, causing many international federations to withdraw or suspend their membership from the organization. Included in these IFs were five sports on the program of the World Combat Games.

Quiñones says this caused uncertainty with the future of the World Combat Games, especially among the sponsors of the games. Quiñones says this lead to Lima dropping out as the host country.

"We decided it was necessary to inform SportAccord that it was impossible for us at that moment to maintain our position as host city of this event. It was a pity, because I think it was a good concept. We didn’t create the problem. We only suffered it," Quiñones tells ATR.

With the World Combat Games off the books, the next major international competition for Lima will come at the 2019 Pan Ams. Quiñones says they will break the record of sports on the program with the additions of surfing and basque pelota, yet breaking the ticket sale record from Toronto will be a difficult task.

The Pan Ams in Lima are set to begin July 26, 2019.

Written by Kevin Nutley

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