(ATR) Family, friends and colleagues pay tribute to Mario Vazquez Rana at a memorial service Sunday in Mexico City.
Vazquez Rana died last month at age 82 after a long illness. At the time of his death he was president of the Pan American Sports Organization, which he headed for nearly 40 years.
More than 200 attended the service at the Mexico Olympic Committee headquarters.
His brother, Olegario, an IOC member and president of the International Sport Shooting Federation, delivered remarks on behalf of IOC President Thomas Bach.
"He believed sport could change each and every one of us," he said.
"His contribution to the Olympics movement over all these years has been invaluable. The Olympics movement lost a great friend," he said.
Mario Vazquez Rana became president of PASO in 1975 after holding a series of positions in Mexican sport, including president of the Mexican NOC. In 1979 he took over as president of the Association of National Olympic Committees, a post he held until 2012, when he resigned. Along with his resignation as ANOC president, he also resigned has an IOC member after serving for 21 years.
Jamaica NOC president Michael Fennell worked with Vazquez Rana through the years as the director of the technical commission that oversees preparation for the Pan American Games, the major sports property of PASO. In his comments at the service, Fennell remembered Vazquez Rana has a one-of-a-kind.
"His unique style of leadership was not always understood by all," noted Fennell.
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The service closes the Vazquez Rana era of leadership at PASO.
The executive board of the organization representing 41 National Olympic Committees in the Americas meets in Mexico City Monday to begin sorting out how it will move ahead without Vazquez Rana at the helm.
Members of the board have to decide whether to select a new president immediately or allow first VP Ivar Sisniega to continue to serve as interim president until 2016, when the next presidential election is supposed to be held.
Written by Ed Hula.
Homepage photo: PASO
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