With two and a half years to go for the Santiago 2023 Parapan American Games, the second Coordination Commission was held between IPC (International Paralympic Committee), APC (Americas Paralympic Committee), Santiago 2023 Corporation, Ministry of sports (MINDEP), Chilean Paralympic Committee (Copachi) and the IND (National Sports Institute). The commission worked for two days through virtual meetings due to the global pandemic situation.
Felipe De Pablo, Santiago 2023’s CEO, and the IPC team, led by Jürgen Padberg, exchanged information about the progress of the organization in all functional areas currently under operation. Infrastructure informed about the Village progress, the airport and coliseum’s accessibility, as well as the status of the competition venues. Finance and Administration presented the updated Games budget. Marketing introduced the new sponsors and the mascot’s future development, which will be the same for both events (Pan American and Parapan American Games). Communications reported on the updated status of the web site, as well as the media relations COR program construction. And finally, the Sports functional area laid out the progress in the qualification systems, and the National Paralympic Committees’ development program, among other topics.
Among the 2021 main agreements, the importance of getting support from specialized alliances for the recruitment and hiring of persons with disabilities is highlighted, to join Santiago 2023’s workforce. This should also be considered for volunteering.
Jürgen Padberg, IPC’s project leader for the Parapan American Games, emphasized the importance of this second work meeting with Santiago 2023: “The team is progressing with great energy and conviction, despite the hard circumstances of the world sanitary crisis. I would like to congratulate everyone for their excellent work and for these two productive meeting days. We continue to collaborate with our colleagues from Santiago in all functional areas, and we have agreed on many follow-up points that we will be discussing in the next weeks. IPC is encouraged by the speedy progress in many areas, such as competition venues and the Athlete’s Village, but also due to the community reach of the Organizing Committee towards the people of Chile, whom our athletes will surprise and inspire in November 2023” declared Padberg.
Felipe De Pablo, Santiago 2023’s CEO, concluded: “We are immensely proud to share the teamwork progress that has been done between MINDEP, IND and Santiago 2023. We have fulfilled the agreements of the last meeting, and we have presented great news, such as the addition of sponsors and the Pan American and Parapan American Village’s steps forward”.
