PASO Chief Considers Exit Strategy, Rogge Hangs Back in Colorado

PASO President on New Term

Pan Am Sports Organization President Mario Vazquez tells Around the Ring he may soon think about an end to his leadership of the continental organization that represents the 41 NOCs of North and South America – after he’s re-elected next year.

"Once I am re-elected, that is something I may think about. I’m not a kid anymore," he admits in an interview with Around the Rings in Guadalajara on the eve of the Pan Am Games.

Vazquez Rana, who has led PASO since the 1980s, told delegates at the general assembly held this week in Guadalajara that he intends to run next year for an eighth four-year term. He is not expected to draw opposition. The election will take place next March or April in Mexico City.

Vazquez Rana, who turns 80 in 2012, will have to give up his IOC seat for retirement, but faces no such age limit for his PASO duties. The same goes for the presidency of the 204 member Association of National Olympic Committees, a post he holds until 2014.

"I could have been re-elected yesterday," he boasted.

"People know I am tough, people know I am strict," he said, explaining the reasons for his continued tenure, the longest of any currently-serving president of an Olympic international sports organization.

When asked if he is looking for possible successors, he would only say "there are many" among the ranks of the region’s NOC leaders.

"So far I haven’t given it much thought about somebody to take over, at PASO or ANOC. Once I am ready to leave, I will never put my hand in that process, it will be a democratic one [to elect a new president."

IOC President Stays in Colorado

An early end to the PASO General Assembly in Guadalajara apparently provided a good excuse for IOC President Jacques Rogge to remainin the Rocky Mountains an extra couple of days instead of heading to Guadalajara as first planned for Tuesday.

Rogge was to have delivered a speech to the PASO general assembly Wednesday. But with the assembly uncharacteristically over a day early, there was no longer an immediate need for the IOC leader to make his way south from Colorado Springs. He’s been there since Sunday attending the now-concluded IOC Athletes Forum hosted by the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Rogge is now expected to travel Thursday to Guadalajara in time to attend a USOC-sponsored reception that night and opening ceremony for the Games Friday night.

The choice to stay in the crisp mountain air of Colorado Springs and the salubrious surroundings of the Broadmoor resort versus hurricane-soaked and congested Guadalajara may not have been hard to make for the IOC President.

PASO chief Mario Vazquez Rana says he understands Rogge’s travel plans change and says it is more important for the IOC chief to be in Guadalajara for the open of the Games Friday.

While giving a pass to the IOC President, Vazquez Rana revealed his displeasure with the timing of the biennial Athletes Forum to conflict with the PASO general assembly and executive committee.

"I have to say that wasn’t very correct the way I see it," said the PASO chief.

A USOC spokesman tells ATR the meeting was scheduled in concert with the IOC and that by ending Monday, would avoid conflict with the opening of the Pan Ams four days later. Originally the forum was set to end 11 days before the Pan Ams, but conflict with the IOC Coordination Commission meeting last week forced a change, ATR is told.

Written and reported in Guadalajara by Ed Hula

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