(ATR) Count Camilo Pérez López-Moreira among the new generation of Olympic leaders worldwide today.
The president of the Paraguay NOC and an IOC member since 2018, Camilo Pérez is also one of the 34 personalities from the five continents running for election to the new governing board for the International Tennis Federation.
The 14-member Governing Board will be elected September 27 during the ITF General Assembly in Lisbon.
The ITF delegates will also decide which of four candidates will serve as president for the period 2019-23.
Incumbent David Haggerty is seeking a second term. His challengers include Dave Miley, a former ITF staff member who’s from Ireland. Ivo Kaderka from Czech Republic and Anil Khanna of India round out the field.
Camilo Pérez spoke with Around the Rings from Paris where he is attending the French Open at Roland Garros. He also took part in an ITF meeting of the regional leaders for the federation which formally launched the election process.
The election will be his first at the ITF. In 2015 he was appointed to lead the ITF Olympic Commission.
"The truth is that as a lover of tennis, a sport that I practiced and had in my heart all my life, it would be a great honor to have the votes and the support of all the countries in the world to contribute my experience" he says.
"My position today in the IOC and in the Olympic world, I think it gives me a vision that can be very useful for the world of tennis," he adds.
Pérez, who turned 50 in March, led the national tennis rankings in his youth and represented Paraguay in South American competitions as a junior.
His multifaceted sports activity between 1980 and 1989 led him to compete at the school level as a sprinter and footballer. Between 1986 and 1987 he was national champion in water skiing. And between 1995 and 2000, he was a national rally champion in motor sports.
Pérez says that as president of the South American Tennis confederation he is not taking endorsing any of the ITF presidential candidates.
"I think the International Tennis Federation is going through a very important moment of change; that the changes must continue in all aspects and it is these changes that I would like to continue supporting; strengthening of the Davis Cup and the Federations Cup, greater massification of our sport, greater development in the regions that are most needed and a transition from the juniors to the cheapest and most efficient professionalism."
Pérez has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of National Olympic Committees since 2018.
He’s also a member of the Executive Commission of Panam Sports and president of ODESUR, the South American Sports Organization.
Pérez says he enjoyed an emotional moment in Paris this week when Argentine tennis great Gabriela Sabatini was honored at the ITF Champions Dinner. She received the Philippe Chatrier Prize, for her outstanding career on and offthe court.
Homepage photo: Getty Images
Reported by Miguel Hernandez.
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