LIMA, August 9, 2019 - The president of Panam Sports, Neven Ilic (Chile), is an unstoppable dreamer. The more you succeed, the more challenges you propose. That is why, in the midst of Lima 2019’s success, his gaze is already focused on a greater challenge: “to take the Pan American Games to the highest possible level”.
In a private press conference with the Young Reporters of AIPS America, the sports leader was satisfied with the level that Peru has presented in the organization of the 18th Pan American Games. While expressing his objective of promoting improvements in all aspects of the Games until they enjoy a status of high quality.
“My idea is to take the Pan American Games to the highest level possible, so that everyone involved in the events concludes that 100% of the experience is fantastic. We have been improving various aspects along the way, including how we treat our athletes, our journalists and guests, and we are always open to advice that will allow us to improve the Games,” said Ilic, who has been head of Panam Sports since 2017.
THE CHALLENGE OF A LEGACY
Asked about the legacy of the Pan American Games in the host cities, beyond the infrastructure, Neven Ilic first warned that “whoever thinks that the Pan American Games are these 16 days of holidays, means that he does not understand anything,” and noted that when the Pan American Games are delivered to a city, it must take advantage of the first phases, the party and the stages after the big event.
The first phase “because the country has a four-year opportunity to prepare a generation of athletes to represent it and give joy to the people. The party (the Games) is the party, but the great challenge of our countries is the legacy ... the challenge is in how a government does not miss the great opportunity to be left with a world-class legacy,” explained the top leader.
“Our fear is that the legislators of our countries are not aware of the importance of sport in the development of society, so part of our message at the end of this is a challenge to the government, inviting it that this cannot remain so, because it will be a shame if we return after a year, and all the wonder they have created is abandoned,” he said.
According to Ilic, it’s fact that the Pan American Games leave a lasting legacy in the host cities and one beyond sports infrastructure, “it is not a spring of PanamSports, but it is a spring of how governments encourage sports development in schools, how they give life to each of the facilities. This is global and cultural, our institutions do not have large enough arms to generate those changes in those countries. They are state policies, not even of a government. Those are the challenges that our countries have.”
Likewise, Neven Ilic, for whom the Lima 2019 Pan American Games are “the success he never dreamed of,” said that in Santiago 2023, they will also have to face similar challenges, as happened after they organized the 2014 South American Games in their country, “when we think that our policies (in Chile) were going to change and changed more or less.”
