(ATR) Legendary runner Ana Gabriela Guevara will be the first woman to lead Mexican sport.
She has been chosen to head CONADE, the government agency responsible for sport across the country.
Guevara, 41, will begin her term of office on December 1, the same date Andrés Manuel López Obrador will take the oath as the new president of Mexico. She currently holds a seat in the Mexican senate.
After her retirement from sport, Guevara served as director of the Capital Sports Institute in Mexico City. In 2008, she resigned from that position to serve as a television commentator at the Olympic Games in Beijing.Guevara was a world champion and 400m Olympic silver medalist in Athens.
Mexican Olympic Committee president Carlos Padilla Becerra says he is happy about Guevara's new role, telling Around the Rings that he expects excellent relations with her office.
Padilla says Guevara "understands very well" the functions of the NOC.
Guevara's rise in Mexican politics and sport could put her in line to be considered as an IOC member. Mexico has been without an IOC member for two years, the first gap for Mexico since 1901 when Miguel de Beistegui joined the IOC.
Mexico Sports Power Grows
Padilla, who is also the first vice president of the Central American and Caribbean Sports Organization, is rejecting the notion that a decline in Cuban sport is the reason for Mexico's triumph in Baranquilla.
"I do not think Cuba is in decline," he said. "The reality is that sports in our region have grown remarkably".
The unheard-of second place at the games has provoked criticism by Cuban sports fans and reports in the sports press.
Padilla compared the medal table of the games in Veracruz, Mexico four years ago with that of Barranquilla, noting that 31 of the 37 competing countries got at least one medal in Baranquilla.
He mentioned Guatemala in particular and of the Caribbean islands in general.
But Padilla also observes that Cubans maintained their leadership in combat sports, a significant fact in view of the Pan American Games in Lima within a year, all those events on the Olympic Program.
Asked if Mexico could repeat a similar performance at the 2019 Pan American Games n Lima, he said the objective for Mexico isn't meant to be better than a specific country.
¨We are evaluating where our planning was accurate and where the faults were (in Barranquilla). The idea is to overcome the performance in Toronto," he said.
In the Canadian Pan Ams, Cuba won 36 gold, 27 silver and 34 bronze medals, while Mexico finished sixth with 22-30-43.
At the Rio 2016 Olympics Mexico ranked 61 in the medals table, Cuba 18th.
For Padilla, the main formula of the Mexican triumph in the Colombian Games was the joint effort of the COM with the government and national sports federations in the preparation of the athletes.
He says the economic situation in Mexico four years ago was not favorable, compounded by natural disasters at the time.
Written by Miguel Hernandez
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