One of the shortcuts that continental sports competitions find to commit the main powers to promote the quality of their delegations is to expand the number of Olympic places in dispute in these regional competitions. This was the case of Panam Sports, the corporation that groups the Olympic Committees of the American continent and which at the recent Santiago Games expanded the number of seats for Paris 2024 like never before. However, the broadly favorable balance left by 2023 for the agency soon found a shadow in the first days of 2024.
In a statement released on Wednesday afternoon, Panam Sports indicated that Barranquilla was removed from organizing the next Pan American Games and explained that the resolution was taken “after countless breaches of the current contract.”
On October 19, at a meeting in Santiago de Chile and after receiving an official letter from the Colombian authorities dated October 25, Barranquilla requested an extension of the deadlines to be able to comply with the payments of organizational rights. The proposal was accepted by Panam Sports, with the agreed commitment due to expire on December 30, 2023. After re-registering a delay in payment, there was no way to continue negotiating. The decision was unanimous. Barranquilla will no longer host the XX Pan American Games.
“Panam Sports deeply regrets this situation, but the decision was taken thinking about the future of the largest multi-sport event in the Americas and the athletes of the continent,” the official statement concluded.
In 2018, Barranquilla began the application process to host the twentieth edition of the Pan American Games. The then mayor of the city, Alejandro Char, announced the candidacy. On June 16, 2021, Panam Sports made it official as the winner to organize the mega-event in 2027 and at the end of October 2023, President Neven Ilic ratified the election of La Arenosa. In November of last year, as soon as the Santiago 2023 Games ended, the current mayor, Jaime Pumarejo, received the flag of the Pan American Games and the Organizing Committee was officially installed, which since previous years had started working on the installation and construction of the infrastructure, which now will not even be used.
With the confirmation that Barranquilla will no longer be the venue, the city of Asunción is gaining strength as its replacement, since it will be responsible for hosting the Junior Pan American Games in 2025 and has just hosted the Odesur Games in 2022. In the coming days, Panam Sports will announce if the Paraguayan capital is indeed the chosen one or if a new process is being opened to evaluate other candidates.
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