A new Colombian Olympic Committee was voted in on Monday, amid some controversy on two key issues.
The first point of contention was that cycling, Colombia’s second most popular sport, was left out of the committee and the second issue was the victory of Dario Tigreros in a second round of voting after the first ended in a tie.
Balcazar Medina, the President re-elect, displayed his displeasure at the claims of cycling not being represented.
“Cycling has not been left out, because I was presented at the Cycling Federation meeting four years ago because I was with them for seven years,” explained Medina.
He added, “I think cyclelers should be quiet and calm…because if I may, I represent cycling.”
The other issue resulted after voting between Dario Tigreros and incumbant Alberto Ferrer for the Executive boards General Secretariat, resulted in a 24-24 tie. There was a second vote which concluded that Tigreros was the victor, receiving twenty-six votes.
Tigrero, President of South America badminton, was optimistic and referenced his past proposal, “I proposed in November last year, that we started doing work one on one with the federations to organize a project more open to all the sports.”
Overall there wasn’t much change to the Executive board which returned six of its nine members including its President and first and second vice president.
The new committee will govern until after the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Sources
- El Comite Olimpico Colombiano ya tiene su nueva junta directiva (El universal)
- Supporting continuity in the new COC executive committee for the period 2013-2017 (Colombia Comite Olympico)
