Panam Sports Makes Date With SportAccord Pan America

(ATR) The Panam Sports Gala this December debuts hand-in-hand with the new SportAccord Pan America.

This first-ever regional forum for the sports federations December 11 and 12 in Fort Lauderdale will be followed December 13 by the inaugural gala for Panam Sports. The gala will recognize top athletes from the 2019 Pan American Games and Parapan Games in Lima.

And there is more. Panam Sports President Neven Ilic confirms to Around the Rings that the day after the gala, the annual Best Practices Symposium of the Americas will be organized with the support of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

SportAccord America, from December 10 to 12, will bring together leaders from the world of sports and will provide an ideal platform for sports experts from the Americas to exchange ideas. The event follows in the footsteps of the giant SportAccord convention held every year, in 2019 set for the Gold Coast in Australia.

Ilic welcomes the coincidence of the regional SportAccord with the Panam Sports activities in December. It’s all part of his efforts at "reengineering" the continental association representing 41 NOCs in the Americas.

In the two years he has been president, Ilic, now an IOC member in Chile, has opened an office in Miami to make it easier to hold meetings such as the December events. And he is determined to make the Pan American Games and the Parapans an appetizing product for companies to sponsor.

For two days this week, Ilic led members of the Panam Sports Executive Committee at a workshop in Miami aimed at improving the Pan Am Games.

Ilic who dreamsthat his organization could one day approach the "spectacular" number of sponsors that the IOC claims, currently a dozen worldwide sponsors.

"Life and the world have changed," Ilic tells Around the Rings in Miami. He says the objective the workshop this week in Miami is "to study of how we make our product finer, more exclusive".

The Pan Am Sports Executive Committee is to meet in March in San Jose, Costa Rica to consider the range of proposals presented in Miami.

Ilic says the next step for this package of proposals will be a presentation at the General Assembly in July ahead of the Lima Pan Ams.

"The sponsors have told us that they want to activate their brands every year, not just every four years," says Ilic, who stresses that these investments will mean increased aid to the NOCs in the Americas.

Ilic says Panam Sports will redouble efforts with international federations to increase the number of Olympic qualifications at the Pan Am Games.

The discussions in Miami also touched on the design of new events and changes to the traditional meant to spur high level competitions and attract more sponsors.

Well-known regional games such as the South American, Central American and Caribbean Games could be included in the changes.

A new event, a junior Pan American Games meant for athletes under 21, is in the planning stages. January 30 is the deadline for bids to host the first edition.

To date, Cali and Medellin in Colombia and Santa Ana in El Salvador have made their intentions public. A bid from Mexico might emerge. The Executive Committee will decide on a host in March.

Still in the exploratory phase are a potential Youth and Beach Pan Ams.

Reported in Miami by Miguel Hernandez.