He sees nothing positive. Ciro Solano, president of the Colombian Olympic Committee (COC), thinks the seven months that María Isabel Urrutia was in charge of the Ministry of Sports wasted time.
The Cordovan leader assured that the preparation of Colombian athletes for the Central American and Caribbean Games San Salvador-2023 (from June 23 to July 8) and the rest of the Olympic cycle before Paris-2024 (July 26 to August), in it is uncertain.
“The preparation is uncertain. Today, no federation has received a weight. That is a lie that the money is in the federations, no one has received money. To date, only two unions have signed, fencing and boxing, and the Paralympic cycling team is evading what the law tells them to. The COC issues should be handled by the COC,” Solano said in dialogue with EL HERALDO, referring to Urrutia’s decision to transfer the funds from the ministry directly to the federations without the involvement of the COC, as it has been since 2000 happened. .
“Today we don’t know what happens to our athletes in view of the Central American and Caribbean Games, we were only told about participation. Ms. Urrutia practically turned the Olympic Committee into a travel agency to pay for air tickets and look at the issue of team presentation, uniforms and registration, that is absurd, that is what we have very respectfully criticized, without putting the discussion on the media agenda. We expected him to respond positively, but no. Fortunately, the country realizes their intentions when they arrived at the Ministry of Sports,” said the visible head of the COC.
Urrutia assures that of the 260 contracts he signed in a week after President Petro announced his departure and before declaring it non-existent on Tuesday, 74 were with the federations. However, Solano insists that the preparation funds for multi-sport jousts had to go through the COC and that the former minister ignored it for “personal reasons”.
“Under the law of the republic, top sport is managed by the COC and the federations. It is clear that the events of the Olympic cycle, such as the Bolivarian Games, Central American and Caribbean Games, Pan American and Olympic Games, are the responsibility of the COC and money should be given for preparation and participation. Now we have the Central American and Caribbean Games, and they have not given us any money for the preparation, today we know absolutely nothing about what is happening to our athletes. How do we react to the country, that’s absurd from any point of view, it’s fine to give money to the federations and whatever they want to give, but for the events on their calendar, shoe rack on your shoe,” the leader said.
“We are the first to celebrate giving money to the unions, but the preparation money, which has been given to the COC since the year 2000, should have been given to the COC. This is a retaliation from this lady for personal problems with some members, because she does not give in to some of the things she wanted to do through the Colombian Olympic Committee. We will announce it in due course,” he added.
Ciro Solano explained that the federations would have to go to private entities for the legalization of resources and other procedures, a service provided by the COC.
“We ask for money for that, but a very small amount and it was reinvested in the same sport, with payments from houses where federations work, plane tickets to participate in events. It is resources invested in the sport itself, the opposite happens when it is a private entity”.
Solano hopes the arrival of Astrid Rodríguez, Urrutia’s replacement, will change the landscape. And he thinks it is “indecent” that the former weightlifter had signed 260 contracts after the president announced his departure from the Ministry of Sports.
“It is indelicate, not said by me, by the president of Colombia himself and by any Colombian who is reasonable. The example was given by the Minister of Education and the Minister of Culture, who immediately resigned. Control agencies will play a very important role,” he said.
Ciro Solano took stock of Urrutia’s management and stated: “Very bad, for everything we hear. You can ask the athletes what he has done for them, for sports in general there is no new program, not even the mission that President Petro asked him to achieve school sports, which was his dream. And in the sport of high performance, worse.
Source: El heraldo
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
