Pan American Sports Organization

Pan American Sports Organization
	Countries with one or more members are in green
Formation	1940
Type	Sports federation
Headquarters	Mexico City, Mexico
Membership	41 National Olympic Committees
Official language	English, Spanish
President	Julio César Maglione
Website	paso-odepa.org

The Pan American Sports Organization (acronym: PASO); (Spanish: Organización Deportiva Panamericana, Portuguese: Organização Desportiva Pan-Americana ODEPA; French: Organisation Sportive Pan-Américaine OSPA) is an international organization which represents the current 41 National Olympic Committees of the North American and South American continents.

It is affiliated with the International Olympic Committee and its affiliated bodies, including ANOC, the Association of National Olympic Committees, and serves as the continental association of the Americas.

The organization's foremost event is the quadrennial Pan American Games, held since 1951. The Parapan American Games was inaugurated in 1999 for disabled athletes and is held alongside the able-bodied Pan American Games. The Pan American Winter Games, for winter sports, was held only once in 1990. The Pan American Sports Festival was inaugurated in 2014 as a developmental event for the region's athletes.

Affiliated organizations[edit]

There are four other organisations affiliated to the Pan American Sports Organization, they are:

ODESUR – organisers of the South American Games
CASCO – organisers of the Central American and Caribbean Games
ORDECA – organisers of the Central American Games
ODEBO – organisers of the Bolivarian Games

Exclusion of indigenous sports[edit]

Despite criticisms that the Ulama or Mesoamerican Ballgame and Lacrosse^[1]^[2] are not included in the program of the Pan American Games, the number of countries enrolled in its member associations is not enough because 14 are needed to have it included in the Games. For example, nowadays, there are 4 nations as efective members of Federation of International Lacrosse (Bermuda,Canada, The United States and Iroquois). However, the Iroquois nation is not a member of PASO. On the other hand, there are seven associate members of the Federation of International Lacrosse (Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico and Peru). Thus, there are eleven nations members of FIL, still not enough to include the sports in the Pan Am Games. Lacrosse is recognized by Sports Accord and by the International Olympic Committee. However the same thing does not occur with ulama, which inhibits its participation in the Pan American Games. It is likely that lacrosse will be included when more American nations start practicing it. Besides, the Lacrosse Copa America was created, and the first one was played in Mexico in 2015.

Flag[edit]

Just like the International Olympic Committee, the Pan American Sports Organization has its own flag. The flag has the four words, "América", "Espírito", "Sports" and "Fraternité", each respectively in one of the four official languages of the organization, namely Spanish, Portuguese, English and French. Also, on the flag is a torch along with the Olympic Rings and five circles with the official colours of the Olympics on a white background. Finally, the words PASO and ODEPA are written to indicate the organization the flag represents.

Member countries[edit]

In the following table, the year in which the NOC was recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is also given if it is different from the year in which the NOC was created.

Nation	Code	National Olympic Committee	Created	Region	Ref.
Antigua and Barbuda	ANT	The Antigua and Barbuda Olympic Association	1966/1976	Caribbean	[2]
Argentina	ARG	Comité Olímpico Argentino	1923	South America	[3]
Aruba	ARU	Aruban Olympic Committee	1985/1986	Caribbean	[4]
Bahamas	BAH	Bahamas Olympic Association	1952	Caribbean	[5]
Barbados	BAR	Barbados Olympic Association	1955	Caribbean	[6]
Belize	BIZ	Belize Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association	1967	Central America	[7]
Bermuda	BER	Bermuda Olympic Association	1935/1936	North America	[8]
Bolivia	BOL	Comité Olímpico Boliviano	1932/1936	South America	[9]
Brazil	BRA	Comitê Olímpico do Brasil	1914/1935	South America	[10]
British Virgin Islands	IVB	British Virgin Islands Olympic Committee	1980/1982	Caribbean	[11]
Canada	CAN	Canadian Olympic Committee	1904/1907	North America	[12]
Cayman Islands	CAY	Cayman Islands Olympic Committee	1973/1976	Caribbean	[13]
Chile	CHI	Comité Olímpico de Chile	1934	South America	[14]
Colombia	COL	Comité Olímpico Colombiano	1936/1948	South America	[15]
Costa Rica	CRC	Comité Olímpico de Costa Rica	1953/1954	Central America	[16]
Cuba	CUB	Cuban Olympic Committee	1926/1954	Caribbean	[17]
Dominica	DMA	Dominica Olympic Committee	1987/1993	Caribbean	[18]
Dominican Republic	DOM	Comité Olímpico Dominicano	1946/1962	Caribbean	[19]
Ecuador	ECU	Ecuadorian National Olympic Committee	1948/1959	South America	[20]
El Salvador	ESA	Comité Olímpico de El Salvador	1949/1962	Central America	[21]
Grenada	GRN	Grenada Olympic Committee	1984	Caribbean	[22]
Guatemala	GUA	Comité Olímpico Guatemalteco	1947	Central America	[23]
Guyana	GUY	Guyana Olympic Association	1935/1948	Caribbean	[24]
Haiti	HAI	Comité Olympique Haïtien	1914/1924	Caribbean	[25]
Honduras	HON	Comité Olímpico Hondureño	1956	Central America	[26]
Jamaica	JAM	Jamaica Olympic Association	1936	Caribbean	[27]
Mexico	MEX	Comité Olímpico Mexicano	1923	North America	[28]
Nicaragua	NCA	Comité Olímpico Nicaragüense	1959	Central America	[29]
Panama	PAN	Comité Olímpico Nacional De Panamá	1934/1947	Central America	[30]
Paraguay	PAR	Comité Olímpico Paraguayo	1970	South America	[31]
Peru	PER	Comité Olímpico Peruano	1924/1936	South America	[32]
Puerto Rico	PUR	Puerto Rico Olympic Committee	1948	Caribbean	[33]
Saint Kitts and Nevis	SKN	St. Kitts and Nevis Olympic Committee	1986/1993	Caribbean	[34]
Saint Lucia	LCA	St. Lucia Olympic Committee	1987/1993	Caribbean	[35]
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	VIN	St. Vincent and the Grenadines National Olympic Committee	1982/1987	Caribbean	[36]
Suriname	SUR	Suriname Olympic Committee	1959	Caribbean (South America)	[37]
Trinidad and Tobago	TTO	Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee	1946/1948	Caribbean	[38]
United States	USA	United States Olympic Committee	1894	North America	[39]
Uruguay	URU	Uruguayan Olympic Committee	1923	South America	[40]
Venezuela	VEN	Comité Olímpico Venezolano	1935	South America	[41]
Virgin Islands	ISV	Virgin Islands Olympic Committee	1967	Caribbean	[42]

Former member: Netherlands Antilles Olympic Committee

There are three area not a part of PASO as they are not independent nations:

Saint Pierre and Miquelon is a self-governing overseas territory of France and not a country.

French Guiana is not a member of PASO as it is an Overseas department of France and not a country. It is the only area of South America not involved.

Greenland is a autonomous country within Denmark and politically associated with Europe is the only North American country not involved in PASO.

Presidents[edit]

No.	Name	Origin	Date of birth/death	Took office	Left office	Notes
1	Avery Brundage	United States	September 28, 1887 - May 8, 1975	1940	1951	President of the IOC from 1952 to 1972
2	José de Jesús Clark Flores	Mexico	1908 - 1971	1951	1955	Former IOC Vice-President; 1st term
3	Doug Roby	United States	March 24, 1898 - March 31, 1992	1955	1959	Was USOC Vice-President and later as President
4	José de Jesús Clark Flores	Mexico	1908 - 1971	1959	1971	Died in office during 2nd term
5	Sylvio de Magalhaes Padilha¹	Brazil	June 5, 1909 - August 28, 2002	1971	1971	President of Brazilian Olympic Committee and Vice-President of IOC
6	José Beracasa	Venezuela	1909 - 2002	1971	1975
7	Mario Vázquez Raña	Mexico	June 7, 1932 - February 8, 2015	1975	2015	Longest serving president and died in office
8	Ivar Sisniega	Mexico	May 29, 1958	2015	2015	Interim President
9	Julio César Maglione	Uruguay	November 14, 1935	2015		President of Uruguayan Olympic Committee

^1 Served as acting president for two months until new election.

PASO Athlete's Commission[edit]

In 2011 a new PASO Athlete's commission was formed. Former Canadian Rhythmic Gymnast and multiple time Pan American Games gold medalist Alexandra Orlando was selected the president of the commission. The commission will be made up of seven athletes (5 current and 2 former) with two being reserved for non-Olympic sports.^[3]^[4]^[5]

Member	Country	Since	Pan American Games Participation
Alexandra Orlando	Canada	2011	2003–2007
Mijaín López	Cuba	2011	2003–2011
Samyr Laine	Haiti	2011	2003–2011
Andrea Estrada	Guatemala	2011	2011
Guillermo Perez	Mexico	2011	2011
Pedro Causil	Colombia	2011	2011
Shannon Nishi	United States	2011	2011

Accession of countries per games[edit]

Games	Host	Accession Countries	Total
I	Buenos Aires	Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela.	21
II	Mexico City	Bahamas, Canada, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico.	4
III	Chicago	Guyana, Netherlands Antilles.	2
IV	São Paulo	Barbados.	1
V	Winnipeg	Belize, Bolivia, Bermuda, Virgin Islands.	4
VI	Cali	-	0
VII	Mexico City	Honduras.	1
VIII	San Juan	Antigua and Barbuda.	1
IX	Caracas	British Virgin Islands, Suriname.	2
X	Indianapolis	Aruba, Cayman Islands, Grenada.	3
XI	Havana	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.	1
XII	Mar de Plata	Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia.	3
XIII	Winnipeg	-	0
XIV	Santo Domingo	-	0
XV	Rio de Janeiro	-	0
XVI	Guadalajara	-	0
XVII	Toronto	-	-
XVIII	Lima	Future	-