Peru's New President Will Support Lima 2019 Pan Ams

(ATR) The president of the Peru Olympic Committee stresses to Around The Rings that the change in government in his country will not affect plans for the Pan American Games in 2019.

Jose Quinones spoke to ATR in Lima just as Peruvians flocked to the polls to vote for either Keiko Fujimori or Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in the national presidential elections this past week.

On Friday, Fujimori, the daughter of incarcerated ex-President Alberto Fujimori, conceded defeat to her rival after it was announced that with all the votes counted Kuczynski won by a narrow 50.1 per cent to Ms Fujimori's 49.9 per cent.

Kuczynski’s Peruvians for Change party faces stiff opposition in the congress with only 18 seats compared to the 73 held by Fujimori’s Popular Force party.

Despite a fractured week in Peruvian politics, Quinones was upbeat about the plans going ahead for the future.

"I think that the change of leadership will not affect the Games organization," Quinones told ATR. "All the political parties support Lima 2019."

The president of Peru’s NOC explained that there would be no concerns about the budget figure itself, but in how it is justified by the organizing committee.

He said: "They just approved the first $200 million in the national congress. That’s what you need for this year and the first months of next year. I think the budget is not the main problem. What the government needs to do is justify the investment.

"We always said from the beginning that we don’t want to have a situation of ‘this costs $500 million’ and then it ends up $1000 million. We want to represent a real serious budget so the government will say that is the real budget, we will not increase it every year.

"At this moment Peru has around $70 billion in international net revenues, so the problem here is not the money but how to use it. So I don’t think the budget will be a problem for the Games."

Quinones added that almost all of the venues for the 18th edition of the Pan American Games had been finalized, with venues for swimming, basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, and the village being clearly defined.

"Right now, we have already finished some of the final planning and we are still working on the rest and the idea is that the final bits of construction will conclude in January and that everything will be built from next semester to the first semester of next year – that’s the idea," he added.

Before the members of PASO arrive in Lima though, the Peruvian capital has another big event on the horizon with the International Olympic Committee’s 130th session coming in September of next year.

It is there, at the Lima Convention Centre, where the host city for the 2024 Olympic Games will be chosen. The current candidate cities are Budapest, Los Angeles, Paris and Rome.

With the eyes of the world on Lima next year, Quinones knows the pressure is on to deliver a smooth event for the IOC and the world’s media.

"It will be big," Quinones said. "It will be the biggest event of its kind in history. We are working and talking every day with the IOC. Until now everything is on time. The hotels are booked, the convention centre is booked, the PCO (private congress organizer) has been hired, so everybody is working right now."

A particular problem that Lima continues to deal with is the flow of traffic. The Peruvian capital is one of the biggest cities in South America, with a population of nearly 9 million.

The IOC can be moved around in special convoys but it is an even bigger challenge to move around spectators, athletes, officials and so on at a continental Games.

But Quinones was confident the city of Lima’s current infrastructure program would be enough to counteract the traffic problem, saying "At the moment the city of Lima is investing around $10 billion in new highways, an underground metro, new bus lines and an elevator train.

"OK, not everything will be finished for the Games - we hope they will - but I think it will be good enough for the Games to permit all the volunteers, visitors, athletes, officials, Pan Am family to go around the city with no big problems."

The public transportation will have to be on point if Lima 2019 is to deliver its promise of being the most compact Pan Am Games in history. The only competition to take place outside the city will be surfing, which Quinones welcomed with enthusiasm into the Games program.

As for medal hopes at Peru’s own Games? Quinones admitted there was a long way to go.

"I have data from all the South American NOC’s at Toronto 2015 - Peru was the country that most increased its performance," he said. "Of course we are far away from Colombia, Brazil or Argentina but we are increasing.

"Our previous record of individual sports qualified was in London. Only 16 athletes qualified in London. Now we are 25 [in Rio 2016], so in the Olympic Games we have increased our quota. It doesn’t seem much, but for us it is more than 50 per cent. So things are going up.

"The Pan Am Games you need to have around 650 athletes. So it’s a big goal, we have to work very hard but first in quantity, then in quality. I think we are on the right path. Now under discussion is a new budget only for the Olympic Games which will give extra money to the federations to prepare their athletes.

"We know that we don’t just have to organize a party, we have to dance it."

Written by Christian Radnedge

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