April Adventures

April was a very rewarding time for me as my travel on IOC and Madrid 2020 matters took me to places where I was able to meet with many of our NF President.  My first stop was FIJI, the paradise island in the Pacific, where I attended the Congress of the National Olympic Committees of Oceania (ONOC).  While there I had the great pleasure of meeting with Andrew Pene, President of the Fiji Triathlon Federation and Joe Au Ramosaea, President of Triathlon Solomon Islands - See photo left.  

I also took advantage of the opportunity to meet with the organisers of the triathlon event in the Nadi, Fiji where we hope to stage an Oceania Cup event at Denarua Island next year.  Click here for a TV news item from Fiji on the topic.

 
From Fiji, I travelled to China for the inauguration of the Juan Antonio Samaranch Memorial Museum which was a wonderful occasion to remember one of my countrymen who did so much for the Olympic movement, and of course Triathlon.  An artist's painting of the museum can be seen in the photo. 

Enroute to China and I made a brief stop in Seoul to meet with the Asian Triathlon Confederation President, Kyung-Sun Yu.   We had  a good discussion about the future of our sport. 

The next stop was Lima, Peru for the IOC Sport for All Conference.  This was a good opportunity to meet with many Triathlon friends from Latin America including ITU Vice President Antonio Alvarez and Costa Rica Olympic Committee Secretary General Silvia Gonzalez.  
Antonio Alarco, past President of Federacion Peruana de Triatlon hosted a love dinner for the Triathlon family in Lima where I also had the opportunity to meet the newly elected President of the federation in Peru, Maria Luz Moñoz.

Freddie Sanchez-Guardiola, EBoard member of Federación Puertorriqueña de Triatlon was also in attendance.  We spent time drafting a joint proposal for the federation to have a triathlon in the “School Games” in Puerto Rico, a new platform to develop the sport with youth.

 
From Peru I visited Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay where I had the pleasure of meeting with the three National Federation Presidents, Alberto Fonollosa, Edgar Ulises Leon Garay and Liber Garcia respectively.  In each country I was invited to join our NF Presidents with their National Olympic Committee Presidents to promote development of our sport in general and the work to host more event specifically.