Ilic Visits Center of Hope

(ATR) Leaders of the Pan Am Sports continental NOC association travel to Haiti to review the progress of the Center of Hope in Port-au-Prince.

Founded three years ago by IOC President Thomas Bach, construction of the Center of Hope was a commitment of the Olympic Movement, through the Olympic Committee of Haiti, to help restore the Caribbean nation's sport infrastructure ravaged by the 2010 earthquake.

According to a press release from Pan Am Sports, the investment in the installation has exceeded $25 million.

During his tour of the premises, Pan Am Sports president Neven Ilic was accompanied by Secretary General Ivar Sisniega.

"We have come to visit this beautiful place that has no reason to envy any other high performance centers in the continent, the whole world as well.

"We have expressed to the authorities of the Olympic Committee and the Haitian Government with their Minister of Sport Regine Lamur, the will to continue working for the sport of this country. They are the ones who know best about the reality of Haiti, so we must work together to continue this great work called Center of Hope," said Sisniega.

The complex, 30 minutes from Port-au-Prince, has modern sports facilities and is designed to offer educational programs, health services and community activities aimed at promoting social values and giving the citizens of Haiti a better future.

The multipurpose complex is located on land donated by the Government of Haiti and has two large indoor practice rooms, another indoor competition hall with a capacity of 2,500 spectators and several outdoor courts and fields. Training is possible in 14 Olympic sports: football, rugby, athletics, volleyball, basketball, handball, tennis, judo, taekwondo, boxing, karate, badminton, table tennis and weightlifting.

The center also has three classrooms, offices, a gym, a medical center, locker rooms, and a gazebo.

Housing was built thanks to financial support from the Inter-American Development Bank, which is headed by Luis Moreno, IOC member in Colombia.

The medical center has been established in cooperation with the American Red Cross and the Haitian Red Cross.

Joining Ilic and Sisniega were IOC member Willi Kaltschmitt from Guatemala, an IOC Executive Board member and IOC colleague Gerardo Werthein from Argentina. Werthein is president of the Sport for Hope Foundation.

Also on the tour Haiti: NOC president Hans Larsen, Deputy Director of the IOC Department of Social Development, James McLeod and Barbara Schweizer, administrator of the Sport for Hope program.

"What we have come to do is inform the authorities that cooperation will continue to flow not only from the IOC, but also from the Pan-American Sports Organization, so that together we can continue to develop this center and the sport in Haiti," says Kaltschmitt.

"Recall that this country has a society where 65 percent are young people under 25, so this sports center is of great importance," said Kaltschmitt.

The visit of the Pan Am Sports leaders comes less than two weeks before the IOC holds its annual Session for the third time in the last five years in Latin America. The 2017 IOC Session begins September 11 in Lima following those held in Buenos Aires in 2013 and in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

The Lima IOC Session is expected to confirm two new IOC members from the Pan Am region: Luis Mejia, president of the Domincan Republic NOC and Ilic, by virtue of his election as Pan Am Sports president in April.

Written by Miguel Hernández