Paraguay President Peña takes 2030 Youth Olympics bid to IOC in push to host more sports

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Paraguay’s President Santiago Pena Palacios addresses the the Summit of the Future, in the United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

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Conmebol President Alejandro Dominguez, left, shows an original document convoking the organization of the first World Cup tournament, to FIFA President Giovanni Infantino, right, and Paraguay President Santiago Peña, during the 78th Conmebol Congress in Luque, Paraguay, Thursday, April 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz, File)

By GRAHAM DUNBAR

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Pushing Paraguay to be a major international sports stage in 2030, President Santiago Peña came to IOC headquarters on Thursday with his country’s bid to be an Olympics host.

Paraguay wants to host the 2030 Youth Olympics in Asunción in the same year it will stage one of the opening games of the men’s soccer World Cup.

“The idea behind this is to make Paraguay the center for many of these major sporting events,” Peña told reporters after leading a delegation to meet International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.

The scale of the Youth Olympics — which had about 4,000 athletes in 32 sports when last held in 2018 in Buenos Aires — is similar to the Junior Pan-American Games that Paraguay will host in August.

“We have the organizational capacity,” said the Paraguayan president for the past 18 months, who acknowledged his country of about seven million people is too little known globally.

“I would say that half the population never heard about Paraguay,” he said, suggesting it was “an exotic name” that perhaps intrigued people to discover more.

Hosting international sports can be a faster path to international recognition, and Paraguay also is bidding for the 2031 Pan-Am Games.

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“It’s an opportunity to raise the level of knowledge about the country,” said Peña, an economist educated at Columbia University in New York. “For many years the country has remained a little bit isolated. It was not an active participant in many of these sports events.”

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Men’s soccer has been a standout, earning Paraguay its only Olympic medal — a silver at the 2004 Athens Games. The team is on pace to qualify for the men’s 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Paraguay has got direct entry to the 2030 edition as one of the unprecedented six co-host nations across three continents for the centenary World Cup.

Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay, the inaugural 1930 host, each get one game before the rest of the 104-game tournament moves to Spain, Portugal and Morocco. The deal struck at FIFA and announced in October 2023 opened the way for Saudi Arabia to be awarded the 2034 tournament without a rival bid.

Peña has since met regularly, including last July at the Paris Olympics, with FIFA President Gianni Infantino who will chair the soccer body’s next annual meeting in Asunción in May.

“I have to take a little bit of ownership on that,” Peña said. “I met with President Infantino in December 2023 and I proposed that he host a FIFA event in Paraguay.”

Infantino also is an IOC member who votes for the 2030 Youth Olympics candidate that is offered for approval. Interest also has been shown by Denmark, India and Thailand. The 2026 edition is in Dakar, Senegal.

A decision on 2030 could come this year, though Bach formally leaves office in June.

“President Bach has been very generous with myself and with Paraguay,” Peña said. “He is leaving behind a great legacy and hopefully in the coming months we can see a confirmation that Paraguay will be hosting the (Youth) Olympic Games.”

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

GRAHAM DUNBAR

Dunbar is an Associated Press sports news reporter in Geneva, Switzerland. He focuses on the governing bodies, institutions and politics of international sports.

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