A Panam Sports pre-Games training camp that proves, in every way, a win-win

How many ways to measure the success of the Panam Sports pre-Tokyo Olympic training camp in Tachikawa, west of the Japanese capital?

Metrics? Sure: 133 athletes, 26 NOCs, four sports — judo, swimming, athletics, beach volleyball, arguably one of the, perhaps the, most diverse such camps in recent memory.

Even better? Hearts and minds. Said Ivar Sisniega, a three-time Olympian (1980, 1984, 1988) in modern pentathlon who went on to be a Mexican sports minister, since 2017 Secretary General of Panam Sports: “It was a win-win situation.”

The idea of a camp, especially a pre-Games camp, is of course hardly novel. Bigger nations do them regularly.

But to be able to stage a week-camp … with a focus on smaller nations … amid the pandemic … that took some doing. 

Working with the association: a local businessman, Masamichi Murayama at Tachihi Holdings KK.

Among the highlights:

— Grenada’s Olympic 400-metre champion, Kirani James, had a fun race with one of the Panam staff, organised by Harvey Glance, who won gold running in the 4x100 relay for the United States in Montreal in 1976 and then, as coach, ran a hugely successful track and field programme at the University of Alabama, where he coached, among others, James. Who won this fun race? Um. James. Who is still getting calls and text messages from Harvey? Panam staff.

— How about the facilities and the food? “Everything has been really spectacular,” Cuban beach volleyball player Leila Martinez would say. “Very nice atmosphere, everyone very sociable … the food is very delicious, with a healthy variety. I have given myself a few banquets of everything.”

Secret: in the rest area, anyone and everyone could find American candy. Were some maybe taken to the hotel? Shhh.

— What about the visit to the local Ishikawagakuen Kobato kindergarten, where the kids had spent months making welcoming signs and decorating the school with artwork, and running relay races in their little gym, and making videos all about their guests from far away?

Because of the virus, the kids, masked, waving flags and cheering, were kept in a string of colourful school buses the day the athletes and coaches arrived. In the rain. Maybe the rain hid some tears.

“It was really sweet. I loved it,” Emilie Grand’Pierre, a swimmer representing Haiti, said. “So much joy, seeing the kids there. It makes me even more excited to be here, and ready to race.”

Such great vibes all around that, Sisniega said, plans are in the works for a bigger and better Panam Sports pre-Paris 2024 camp, to be located in Mulhouse, France, near the Swiss border: 400 athletes and coaches, 35 nations.

When you have a win-win, he said, you naturally want to do it again, just bigger and better, that pre-Tokyo camp not just reflecting but revealing “the true diversity of Solidarity, with Panam Sports and the IOC helping the athletes but also athletes and coaches helping athletes from other nations.”