PASO Embraces Youth for Leadership

(ATR) The new president of the Pan American Sports Organization tells Around the Rings he’s ready to drive change.

"It’s incredible after all these years to have a new president. We have many challenges but I am also president of a big family like PASO," Neven Ilic said about what lies ahead.

Ilic, president of the Chile Olympic Committee, won the election 26 to 25 over Jose Joaquin Puello, the former president of the Dominican Republic Olympic Committee and the 2003 Pan Am Games in Santo Domingo.

If age was a factor, the PASO delegates voted in the majority for the 55-year-old Ilic, from another generation as his rivals. Puello is 75, the same age as Carlos Nuzman of Brazil who was the third candidate in the race at the start of the voting Wednesday morning in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

Nuzman and Ilic tied with 14 votes each in the first round with Puello winning 23 votes, three short of the majority needed to win outright. Illic outpolled Nuzman 27 to 23 in a runoff to face Puello..

The secret ballot took about 2 ½ hours to complete across three rounds of voting. Michael Chambers of Canada, head of the legislative committee for PASO, conducted the vote.

"I am respectful of experience, but now is the time, this is life. I am ready to move PASO forward," Ilic told ATR soon after the election. In brief remarks to the assembly after the vote, Ilic pledged to unify PASO, which he called a "big family".

Ilic succeeds Julio Cesar Maglione, 82, who has been an interim leader for PASO since the death of former president Mario Vazquez Rana. He was 82 when he died in 2015 after first being elected in 1975. That makes Ilic, the Chilean construction company magnate, the first president chosen in a contested election for PASO that anyone currently affiliated with the organization can remember.

"He talked about working together as a community and I think this leader will get us there," Tricia Smith, IOC member and president of the Canadian Olympic Committee, tells ATR.

She says she wants to see PASO play a bigger role in helping its National Olympic Committees in the fight against doping.

"I think PASO took the opportunity to open a window of change," says Cliff Williams, secretary general of Antigua and Barbuda.

While he acknowledged the experience offered by Nuzman and Puello, he believes the youth and energy of Ilic is just what PASO needs at this time. And he points out that the new PASO president is young enough to be elected to the IOC. Nuzman retired from the IOC in 2012 when he hit 70 years of age and Puello is now too old to be nominated.

IOC president Thomas Bach was on hand for the voting and spoke to Ilic a few times during his visit to Uruguay. Speaking to ATR soon after the vote, Bach said it was "too early" to talk about the possibility of an IOC seat for the PASO president.

In his 10-minute speech to the assembly prior to the vote, Ilic came across in an animated and energetic manner that some delegates said presented him like they had never heard him before.

Nuzman delivered his remarks in the convivial tone of someone who has been speaking to PASO for more than 20 years in a variety of roles. He was friendly and avuncular but outplayed by Ilic.

Puello gave a rambling discourse that touched upon medical treatments for brain cancer and then a litany of artists and intelligentsia from the Americas. The name dropping included Edgar Allan Poe, Bob Dylan and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. An homage to his wife and her dedication may have been touching but did little to convince enough delegates to join the Puello camp in the final round of voting.

The changes coming to PASO include a new secretary general, Ivar Sisniega, a Mexican sports administrator with a background in modern pentathlon and the chair of ACODEPA, the PASO Association for the sports under the umbrella of the Pan Am games.

Sisniega will replace Jimena Saldana, who for many years worked alongside Vazquez Rana. Since his death in 2015 she has been an important link in the continuity of services and activities carried out by the small staff in the Mexico City office. She and Maglione received a standing ovation at the end of the meeting on Wednesday.

Ilic takes office during a period of challenge for the major property of PASO, the Pan American Games. With two years to go until the 2019 edition in Lima, Peru there is great concern about the pace of construction work especially for the Pan American Village, aquatic center and other key venues not yet built.

His background in the construction industry may be just the sort of expertise to help Lima get through these tough times.

Chile was a double winner of sorts at this PASO assembly. Along with the presidency of one of the world’s leading continental Olympic associations, Chile is on its way to claiming the 2023 Pan American Games. Capital city Santiago is the only bidder for the event after Buenos Aires dropped out last week.

Whether there is a conflict of interest with Ilic as PASO president remains to be seen but may be a moot point with a single bidder. And with hometown games for the PASO president, he is likely to take extra effort to make sure the first-ever in Chile are a success.

Richard Peterkin, IOC member in St. Lucia, will return as treasurer. An auditor by background, Peterkin held the position until he fell out of favor with Vazquez Rana in 2012.

Mexico Olympic Committee president Carlos Padilla was elected first vice president. He is first in line to succeed the president, if needed. Padilla takes over as chair of ACODEPA, from which Sisniega resigned after being chosen as secretary general.

Written and reported in Punta del Este by Ed Hula.

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