On 4 October 2024, the IOC President Thomas Bach embarked on an extensive tour of the Americas, and several stops were made along the way to maintain engagement with the continent’s sports organisations. He began at the Pan American Sports Organization (Panam Sports) General Assembly in Paraguay. It was a platform for Bach to take up the future of the Olympic movement ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Bach emphasized regional cooperation to maintain the Olympic legacy through sport in terms of sustainability and inclusion.
Bach also spoke at the meeting about the IOC’s recent efforts to open the games, such as Olympic Agenda 2020 and the Digital Transformation Project, to people and to reduce their impact on the environment. He focused on the importance of Pan-American cooperation in defending Olympic values and disseminating them across different communities.
Bach’s Paraguay trip wasn’t merely ceremonial: he wished Latin America had the facilities to nurture talent and host the next Olympics. The conference provided Bach with an opportunity to laud the successes of regional athletes and wrestle with infrastructure and funding issues in small-time sports. The tour illustrates the IOC’s global outreach, reaching out to members from all continents and showing how sport can change the world.
