Before the official start of the I Junior Pan American Games in Cali, Colombia, and as part of the working meeting of the Association of Pan American Sports Confederations (ACODEPA), the head of cycling in America, José Manuel Peláez, received the Medal of Sports Merit, awarded only to three sports leaders of this organization.
“The surprise of the recognition was true, despite being part of this organization since its foundation in 1992. It is not a personal merit that this award implies,” he commented hours later on his official page on the Facebook social network Peláez, who He also said that it was an award for continental cycling and Cuba.
“It is not a personal merit that this award carries implicitly. I assume it as the representative of the results achieved by continental cycling in the last 30 years, and as another triumph of the Cuban sports movement, to which I also owe my professional training for almost half a century ”, wrote the also member of the Olympic Committee Cuban.
The other two winners of the same Medal were the Guatemalan Carlos Silva, interim holder of ACODEPA until 2019, and the Colombian Ciro Solano Hurtado, at the head of the Colombian Olympic Committee after this year’s elections.
Peláez declared exclusively that “I remembered the friendship with many who are no longer here and above all I thought of that founding day in 1992, summoned by the idea of Mario Vázquez Raña, then president of PASO, now converted into Panam Sports.
“I dedicate this Sports Merit Medal given by ACODEPA to the cycling family in America, to those who have accompanied me in these 30 years directing the destinations of COPACI, to the athletes, coaches, commissioners, mechanics and other personnel. Without them no dream, idea or project would have been possible. It is the main motivation that always inspires me to continue ”, concluded José Manuel Peláez’s post.