(ATR) Panam Sports has provided each of the 41 National Olympic Committees of the Americas a fund of $5,000 toward projects for the promotion of women "but it is still not being used".
Nicole Hoevertsz, a member of the Executive Board of both Panam Sports and the IOC, made the comments on Thursday during the first International Seminar on Sports Administration virtually organized by the Central American and Caribbean Sports Organization (CACSO).
"We are very sorry that so far the NOCs have not taken advantage of it enough," said Hoevertsz.
"From here, a call to make use of this possibility," said the sports leader from Aruba during the videoconference that some 2,000 participants from 50 countries registered to attend.
Hoevertsz, who joined the IOC in 2006, was an Olympic competitor in Los Angeles 84 in synchronized swimming. In her presentation, Gender Equality in the Olympic Movement, the Aruban leader considered that "progress has been made but very slowly" and called for greater recognition of women, including former athletes.
In this sense, the IOC sent an important signal by selecting last month as a member of the IOC the first Olympic champion of Latin America, the Cuban María Caridad Colón, 62 years old.
Colon won gold in javelin in Moscow 80
At the moment, the 104 members of the IOC include 39 women.
Only 18 of the 206 NOCs have women who serve as presidents. In the Americas, women lead six of the 41 NOCs, with another nine serving as general secretaries.
Hoevertsz recalled, in her interesting speech, that her leadership career in the Olympic Movement received a boost when the long-time president of the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO), Mario Vázquez Raña, appointed her to his executive in 1998.
She took advantage of the context to pay tribute to the recently deceased Flor Isava-Fonseca, the legendary Venezuelan athlete and leader who was the first woman to enter the IOC in 1981 alongside Pirjo Hagmann of Finland.
Isava-Fonseca died at the age of 99 on July 25.
The Seminar on Sports Administration was held, coincidentally, on the days of the 17th anniversary of the successful celebration in Santo Domingo of the XIV Pan American Games. Dr. José Joaquin Puello Herrera led the organizing committee along with Luis Mejia Oviedo, the current CACSO president.
Puello Herrera today has an active role in her country in the protocols for the application of a vaccine against Covid-19 once one is found. The coronavirus has hit the Dominicans hard.
An Extraordinary General Assembly of CACSO will be held this Saturday by videoconference to seek light on a new venue for the Central American and Caribbean Games of 2022 following Panama's recent withdrawal as host.
The good news this week on the possibilities of vaccines for Latin America and the Caribbean in the first half of 2021 will undoubtedly mark the forum.
Written by Miguel Hernandez
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