PLANNING
Proposals from cities must be sent by January 16th
Published on December 23, 2024 at 4:51 pm
Rio de Janeiro and Niteroi want to host the Pan American Games Credit: Disclosure
The cities of Rio de Janeiro and Niterói created a committee to discuss weekly the joint candidacy to host the 2031 Pan American Games. Rio’s municipal secretary of Sport, Guilherme Schleder, and the elected vice-mayor of Niterói and Olympic medalist, Isabel Swan, met last week to begin the work of structuring the technical proposal that will be presented to the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB). The group’s members will be announced in the first days of January.
Rio and Niterói have until January 16th to send the technical proposal for the candidacy to the COB Board of Directors. The entity requests that topics such as “motivation and vision of the future”, “infrastructure and logistics” and “source of financing and government guarantees” be addressed. The entity’s decision on which Brazilian candidate will be in the bid to host the Pan comes on January 29th. In addition to Rio’s candidacy, the city of São Paulo is also in the running.
“The Pan will be held as a legacy of itself. Since 2007, the city of Rio de Janeiro has maintained high standard Olympic facilities, such as the Maria Lenk Water Park, today used as a Training Center by the COB, and others that were built for the 2016 Olympic Games. It is also an opportunity to use the excellent facilities that Niterói maintains, such as the Caio Martins Sports Complex. And Niterói is a city that has always revealed several athletes, including great ones. Olympic medalists like Lars and Torben Grael, and the elected vice-mayor of Niterói, who is in charge of the committee together with me, Isabel Sawn”, said Schleder.
The proposal also calls for initiatives aimed at detecting and developing talent to be highlighted. In this regard, Rio de Janeiro is ahead. Currently, the city maintains Team Rio, made up of 36 Olympic and 24 Paralympic athletes, who receive a grant from the city hall of R$8,000 to dedicate themselves exclusively to their activities.
“To give an example of the program’s success, in the last Pan American Games, last year, our athletes won 56 medals, 26 in the Pan and 30 in the Parapan. We are aligning the last details for the next Olympic cycle, but the quantity number of athletes served will be expanded. Furthermore, today, within the structure of the Rio Sports Secretariat, we have 26 Olympic Villages, in addition to the Velodrome and the Deodoro Radical Park, which offer fitness classes. more than 100 sports for more than 60 thousand people, including children and teenagers from across the city of Rio de Janeiro”, confirmed the secretary.
Rio and Niterói expressed their desire to host the Pan in the first week of December. The cities of RJ have a recent apparatus, which served the 2007 Pan and 2016 Olympics. Each country can only present one candidacy. The result will be announced at the Panam Sports General Assembly, in August, during the Junior Pan-American Games.
SÃO PAULO ASSEMBLES TASK FORCE
In addition to its willingness to meet the required requirements, São Paulo has in its favor the fact that it has already hosted major sporting tournaments, such as the opening of the 2014 World Cup, and believes it has the structure to host the event and that it will have modernization to meet the entire population of São Paulo and tourists who will attend the Pan.
A task force was set up in the municipal government, with the participation of representatives from five departments, in addition to the Information and Communication Technology Company of the Municipality of São Paulo (Prodam) and São Paulo Turismo (SPTuris).
The COB General Assembly, which will be responsible for the decision, is made up of 34 presidents of the Summer and Winter Olympic Confederations affiliated to the entity, two Brazilian members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and 19 representatives of the Athletes’ Commission (CACOB) .
