“This is a unique opportunity for many athletes who will have a highly demanding competition, an intermediate and necessary tier,” says Claudio Martínez, from COES at the gates of the Junior Pan American Games.
Young people are gaining ground in the competitions of the Olympic cycle, and it is confirmed with these I Junior Pan American Games, which from today until December 5 will be held in Cali, Colombia. Since the International Olympic Committee established the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games – Nanjing 2014 and Buenos Aires 2018 followed – a lot of water has flowed.
And now it is the turn of the American continent, which through Panam Sports for the first time will have such a type of competition. Soon it will also be the turn of the Bolivarians, where El Salvador frequently participates as a guest.
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Cali receives 3,500 athletes, from 41 different countries, who will participate in 39 disciplines. El Salvador will be in 20 of them with a total of 66 athletes, the third largest delegation in Central America after Guatemala (122) and Costa Rica (67). It is a unique opportunity for many athletes who will have a highly demanding competition before their peers of the same age, an intermediate and necessary tier that previously did not exist in order to then make the leap in quality to a higher level.
Unlike the Youth Olympics, whose limit is 18 years, here each sport has its own age restrictions, ranging from 18 to 23, as is the case with cycling. Among the 66 Salvadorans there are several with a lot of filming and who could take advantage of their experience.
One of them is Uriel Canjura, which has already been in Bolivarianos, Central Americans and the Caribbean, Pan-American and even Youth Olympics. Others with vast travel are the Elisa Funes and Fátima Portillo (swimming), Fatima Centeno (badminton), Paola Corado and Marcela Cortez (archery) and Esteban Ibáñez (Athletics).
The delegation of El Salvador is a very heterogeneous group that, as with Hugo Pérez’s Selecta, also has several compatriots born abroad. It is the case of Diego Orantes table tennis player, who was born and lives in Sweden. From the United States comes the swimmer Isabella Alas, the gymnast Mauricio Gallardo, The athlete Carlos Santos, the fencer David naranjo and the shirt Ariana Townsend. They have not lost their bond with the country and are willing to give everything to sound the national anthem at the award ceremonies.
In short, there are 66 national athletes who will write the first page of these Junior Pan American Games. Hopefully it is in capital letters.
* Claudio Martínez is the Pan-American Ataché of the El Salvador Olympic Committee at the Cali 2021 Games.
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