Dominicans conflicted over Pan-Am Games
Pan Am Games Posted on Tue, Mar. 25, 2003 BY KEVIN BAXTER Knight Ridder Newspapers
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - (KRT) - Most weeknights, Ludys Tejada drives to a smog-choked park in the center of Santo Domingo, sets up a target and spends hours honing her archery skills.
Her concentration is intense. It has to be - if she misses the target, she's likely to pick off one of the many joggers, cyclists or baseball players with whom she shares the crowded park. When she does let her mind wander, Tejada daydreams about Aug. 11, the day the archery competition will open at the Pan American Games here.
''Just going to the line,'' says Tejada, the host country's best chance for a medal, ``will be a thrill.''
Still, like most Dominicans, she's conflicted. Although the country's selection as site of the world's largest international athletic competition after the Olympics is a source of pride, it's not without controversy.
''It's hard for a small country,'' Tejada says. ``It's going to be very difficult.''
Adds a taxi driver with a dismissive wave of his hand: ``It's ridiculous. This is a poor country. We need the money for more important things.''
But it's too late to turn back now. Despite an ambivalent populace and construction delays that still threaten the cancellation of some events, the Pan American Sports Organization is expected to give the Dominican Republic the final go-ahead for this summer's Games when its meets Thursday and Friday in Havana.
Preparations for the Games represent the largest public works project in Dominican history, says Dr. Jose Joaquin Puello, a prominent surgeon and president of the Pan Am Games organizing committee.
''Sports should be an important part of any society,'' he says. ``There's no doubt the legacy will be long-term.''
Santo Domingo's bid to host the quadrennial festival, which features 5,000 athletes from more than 40 nations competing in 22 sports, has had to survive a number of challenges simply to make it to this week's meeting. The Dominican capital originally hoped to host the 1999 Games but, after three ballots, it lost to Winnipeg by a vote. In 1998, Santo Domingo bid again, beating Guadalajara, Mexico and Medellin, Colombia in a heated fight for the right to stage this year's event, which runs Aug. 1-17.
After winning the right to stage the Games, financial problems forced the organizing committee to wait nearly three years before starting to refurbish existing venues and build new ones. Then that work ground to a halt for three months this winter when the political crisis in Venezuela delayed delivery of items, including stadium seats, scoreboards and building materials the construction companies were contractually obligated to buy from the South American country.
In early February, President Hipolito Mejia stepped forward approved a $5 million line of credit to help speed construction, promising the work would be done by the May 30 deadline.
Yet as recently as last month there was still concern some of the 35 venues won't be ready on time.
Some projects have a mid-June deadline, but work on the 30,000-seat Olympic Stadium, where opening ceremonies and track events will be held, and the rowing venue is likely to continue right up to Aug. 1.
Construction crews, already working 10-hour days, have been expanded, and the Dominicans intend to tell the Havana meeting the crisis is over.
''The danger that we'd have to cancel an event because some installation wasn't finished has passed,'' says Puello. He admits construction is dangerously behind but blames much of the alarm on cultural differences.
``In Spanish-speaking countries in America things happen that, for Anglos, are simply unusual. The fact that we're trying to finish our sports installations at the last minute, for (Anglos), worries them.''
Darryl Seibel, a spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee, says the USOC, which will send 650 athletes to Santo Domingo, is concerned but is not considering alternative sites for the Games.
''We're certainly well aware that there are challenges related to venue construction. But we're confident that the Organizing Committee is doing everything it can to complete any remaining construction projects in time,'' he says. ``There's no reason to believe at this point that delays would necessitate any change in the current plan.''
For Puello, leader of the Dominican Olympic Committee for 21 years, president of the Caribbean and Central American Sports Organization and a member of the International Olympic Committee's anti-doping committee, the Pan Am Games represent the culmination of a long career in amateur sports. He's retiring after the closing ceremony, and he sees the Games and what they'll leave behind as his legacy.
'The Pan American Games, obviously, were a trampoline, a `booster,' of a sports development plan in the sense that we're building a good sports infrastructure, a good human infrastructure and, above all, we're giving a good image of the country, both from the sports sense and the nonsports sense, to the rest of the world,'' Puello said in Spanish. ``Unless a small country has an event like the Pan Am Games they will not invest in sports. Politicians pay very little attention to sport. They do not understand what sports is all about.''
But politicians aren't the only ones. Although the Games organizing committee trumpets a newspaper poll showing 74 percent of Dominicans are in favor of the Games, it's almost impossible to find anyone outside the committee who admits they feel that way. Even many athletes are uncertain.
''So many people are against it,'' says a man prominent in Dominican baseball circles who, fearing retribution, asked that his name not be used. ``I'm just going to sit back and see what happens.''
Most of the opposition is based on the belief that the government's contribution of more than $110 million could have been better spent on social programs in a country where a quarter of the population lives in poverty. As a result, Puello spends much of his time trying to sell the Games - to the public as well as the politicians.
''If you do not invest in sports, no one can guarantee you that that money will go into education or agriculture or health care,'' says Puello, who puts the number of workers employed in Games-related activities at 9,000, a significant number in a country with an official unemployment rate of 15 percent. ``The long-term benefits are undeniable. The useful life of the installations is 30 years. In a nation like this one, where there's been little (monetary) investment in sports, that's going to be highly beneficial. Especially for the youth.''
Most of the money the government had devoted to the Pan Am Games construction is going to improve or replace venues originally built for the 1974 event. The basketball arena is getting a new floor, for example, and the main stadium a new synthetic track.
The nearby Olympic Center will feature a cycling velodrome, a fencing center, a martial arts arena, a volleyball stadium and an aquatics center.
In the capital's sprawling East Park, new facilities have been built or are being built for tennis, team handball, soccer, gymnastics, field hockey, table tennis, archery and weightlifting.
This isn't the first time there's been a public outcry over the use of public funds to construct sports venues. In 1974, the government spent millions to construct a basketball arena, track stadium, swimming complex and other installations for the Central American and Caribbean Games. The host country's athletes responded by winning 21 medals, including a gold, by far the Dominican Republic's best performance in international competition up to that time.
''Some people thought it was expensive then,'' says an Organizing Committee official. ``But it was the turning point in sport here.''
In last fall's Central American Games in El Salvador, Dominicans won 135 medals, including 32 golds.
''When you talk about sports in the Dominican Republic,'' the official added, ``you talk about before and after 1974.''
Puerto Rico, which spent $60 million to prepare for the 1979 Pan Am Games, estimated the economic impact to the island at $165 million. Winnipeg, which hosted the 1999 event, said it received a 500 percent return on its investment. With tourism having recently joined sugar and tobacco as a main driver of the Dominican, the Games could prove an even bigger boon, with organizers estimating 40,000 people will visit the island during the first three weeks of August.
There are other side benefits. An Olympic Village being constructed by Santo Domingo's airport will become a middle-class neighborhood after the Games. And some of the high-tech television and communications equipment being imported this summer will remain in the country, with Dominicans trained to run it.
''If the Games are such a bad investment, then why are so many cities fighting hard to get them?'' asks Puello.