Colombian NOC News
25 Apr 2023 - Find here the latest news from the National Olympic Committee: events, courses, general assemblies and elections, trophies and much more.
25 april 2023 - From 19 to 23 April, the International Masters in Sports Management got under way for its 12 participants. This academic programme for sports administrators was opened in the NOC’s auditorium, in the presence of NOC President Ciro Solano Hurtado and Jordi Segui Urbaneja, Director of the Masters in Sports Management at the Catalonian National Institute for Physical Education (INEFC) at the University of Lleida (Spain). As well as listening to talks given by experts, the participants were able to visit sports venues in Bogotá and Chía. More details here.
03 April 2023 - The Ordinary General Assembly of the NOC of Colombia took place at the Columbian football federation headquarters in Bogota. All executive committee members were present, along with representatives of 46 of the 54 sports federations affiliated to the NOC. NOC President Ciro Solano Hurtado highlighted the successes of 2022. He also announced the construction of a new building for all the sports federations, as part of the NOC's commitment to sports development.
16 February 2023 - At the beginning of February, the Colombian Sports Journalists Association (Acord) presented its annual prizes, including for the best athletes and sports leaders. Weightlifter Jenny Álvarez, skater Brayan Carreño and Paralympic swimmer Carlos Serrano were voted athletes of the year 2022. For his part, NOC President Ciro Solano Hurtado was awarded the excellence prize for his leadership and engagement. More details here.
06 February 2023 - On 27 January, at the NOC headquarters, Alberto Galvis Ramírez was sworn in as President of the Colombian Olympic Academy for a two-year term from 2023 to 2025. He takes over from Guillermo González, who led the Academy for four years. Galvis Ramírez was previously Secretary General of the Academy, as well as coordinating the NOC’s communications and serving as Director of its Olympic Review. More details here.
23 January 2023 - Colombia’s 10th Olympic Sport Gala took place on 18 January in Bogotá. This awards ceremony organised by the Colombian NOC recognises the best athletes of 2022 in two categories: Olympic sports and non-Olympic sports. You can find all the winners of the Altius 2022 awards on www.olimpicocol.co
23 November 2022 - The Colombian NOC has been honoured by the Colombian Motor Sport Federation (Fedeautos), in recognition of its constant support and contribution to the development and future of motor sport. A ceremony organised in Bogota as part of Fedeautos’ 50th anniversary brought together numerous sports leaders, current and retired drivers, and journalists. More details here.
02 November 2022 - The Colombian NOC received a visit from weightlifter Diego Fernando Salazar (see photo), a silver medallist at the Olympic Games Beijing 2008, who met with NOC President Ciro Solano and Secretary General Ana Edurne Camacho. Salazar is a great example of professional reorientation after a successful sporting career. Besides his Olympic silver medal, he also has a bronze medal from the World Championships in 2006, and two golds from the Pan American Games in 2003 and 2007. Today he uses his experience as an elite athlete at the Tuluá Municipal Sports Institute, of which he is the Director. More details here.
20 December 2021 - The Colombian NOC honoured the outstanding athletes of the past year with its traditional Altius awards ceremony, held on 15 December. The Colombian sports gala event saw the best athletes of 2021 receive awards in two categories: one for Olympic sports, and the other for sports not on the Olympic programme. Anthony Zambrano (see photo), Mariana Pajón and Lorena Arenas, all silver medallists at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, were named best Olympic athletes of the year. More info here and the full list of winners here.
25 October 2021 - The seventh edition of the GOLD course, the academic programme supported by the Colombian NOC , concluded on 21 October in Cali. Forty-five participants received diplomas for completing the course, which covered, among other things, sports organisation management. In his speech, the course director, Guillermo González, hailed the work that had gone into making this first virtual edition of the course a success. More details here.
02 July 2021 - Double Olympic BMX champion Mariana Pajón was symbolically handed the Colombian flag by the Colombian President, Iván Duque, at a ceremony for the Colombian delegation going to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. The ceremony was held on 29 June at the Casa de Nariño, the official residence of the Colombian President. In attendance, along with the athletes and coaches, were the President of the Colombian NOC , Ciro Solano Hurtado, the Chef de Mission for Tokyo 2020, Helmut Bellingrodt Wolff, the Minister for Sport, Ernesto Lucena, and the Japanese Ambassador to Colombia, Keiichiro Morishita. More info here.
28 june 2021 - To mark Olympic Day, the Colombian NOC organised sports events in several cities around the country. In Bogotá, the sports community gathered in El Tunal Park to celebrate the Day by moving, learning and discovering. In eight of the country’s departments, the municipal and departmental sports bodies organised a range of activities. More details here. Then, on 24 June, the official uniform for the Colombian Olympic team was unveiled. The uniform is made from 100 per cent recycled fabrics, made in Colombia from plastic bottles that were collected throughout the country. More details here.
15 February 2021 - On 8 February, the first session of the international seminar on neurosciences in athletics was held remotely by the Colombian Athletics Federation, with the support of the Sports Ministry and the Colombian NOC . The opening ceremony was attended by Federation President Ramiro Varela, World Athletics Vice-President and Olympic medallist Ximena Restrepo, and NOC Secretary General Ciro Solano. Over 100 people followed the first day of the seminar, and the second part is scheduled for next week. Full details here. In addition, the first regional forum on the socialisation of the new sports law project was held recently, with the participation of over 600 people, including Sports Minister Ernesto Lucena Barrero, Deputy Minister Lina Barrera, and NOC and Paralympic Committee presidents Baltazar Medina and Julio César Ávila respectively. This virtual forum addressed building a better country through sport, creating a system that regulates sports practice at national level, and implementing a public policy on the use of free time. More details here.
08 February 2021 - On 1 February, the Villa Deportiva Colombian sports venue was reopened in the presence of Sports Minister Ernesto Lucena, who handed over the keys to the rooms, which are named after Colombia’s most famous athletes. Colombian NOC President Baltazar Medina was also present, alongside Olympic medallists Óscar Figueroa and María Isabel Urrutia, and Paralympians Diego Dueñas and Sara Vargas. More details here.
01 February 2021 -The Colombian NOC organised three days of training as part of the 3rd edition of the Barranquilla sports administration diploma for 2020. On 18, 20 and 22 January, the participants followed online presentations on sustainability in sport, the prevention of competition manipulation, the integrity of sport, and management skills. More details here.
30 Novembre 2020 - The third edition of the sports administration diploma got under way in Barranquilla on 25 November. Representatives of the organisations that put this online edition together took part in the opening ceremony. These included the Colombian NOC President, Baltazar Medina; the Director of Indeportes Atlántico, Armando Segovia; and the Secretary General of La Costa University, Benjamín Lizarazo. The NOC President introduced the topic for this opening session, “the structure of the Olympic Movement and Olympic Agenda 2020”, which was attended by around 50 sports leaders. More details here.
23 Novembre 2020 - The third edition of the International Forum on Gender Equality and Diversity was held successfully from 11 to 13 November, with nearly 20,000 people following the event remotely. The Forum was organised by the Colombian NOC ’s Gender Equality and Diversity in Sport Commission, with support from Panam Sports, Olympic Solidarity and the NOC’s Academic Department. The aim of the Forum, which was entitled “Let’s Speak About Our Reality” (Hablemos de nuestra realidad), was to show, from different angles, the realities of gender equality and diversity in sport. More info here.
30 October 2020 - The Colombian Olympians Association was officially created on 17 October, following a virtual constitutive ordinary General Assembly attended remotely by 57 athletes. The President of the Colombian NOC , Baltazar Medina, opened the General Assembly, before handing the floor to Amaranta Acosta, a representative of the World Olympians Association (WOA). The 57 athletes elected Alfredo González – who competed in the shooting competition at the Olympic Games Montreal 1976, Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988 – as President of the Association. Paulo Villar will become the Secretary General and Administrative Vice-President. Full info here. In addition, 15 athletes and two coaches will become spokespersons for the #HealthyTogether, #UnidosMásSaludables campaign in Colombia. Internationally, the campaign was launched by the IOC, the United Nations and the World Health Organization, which have joined forces to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, with the assistance of athletes to pass on the message. The athletes and coaches will invite their citizens to adopt or follow behaviours that will contain the pandemic. More info here.
05 October 2020 - The Olympism for Children programme got underway on 29 September in primary and secondary schools across Bogotá. The programme is being organised by the Colombian NOC , through the Colombian Olympic Academy and the District Institute for Leisure and Sport (IDRD), with support from Olympic Solidarity. At an official ceremony, the Academy provided the IDRD with the first 900 Olympism for Children booklets, as part of the first stage of Olympism for All, a programme designed to provide information and generate interest within Colombian society about the Olympic philosophy and Olympic values, with family at the core. The next three stages are: Olympism for Youth, Olympism for Adults and Olympism for the Family. More details here.
18 September 2020 - The 2nd National Athletes’ Forum, organised virtually on social networks by the Colombian NOC , was a great success. From 9 to 11 September, around 90,000 people followed the talks by 17 speakers, including many athletes. The Forum theme was “Athletes adapting to a new social and sporting environment”. The Forum closed with the participation of Sports Minister Ernesto Lucena and NOC President Baltazar Medina. More details here.
On 15 September, a virtual meeting of the Standing Committee and Executive Committee of the Spanish NOC was held, attended by 26 members. The topics discussed by the Executive Committee included the NOC activity report, the operating procedure for the competitions of Spanish national federations, the situation regarding global competitions, the Association of Olympic Sports (ADO) and the NOC’s annual gala. More details here.
11 September 2020 - The Colombian NOC ’s Environmental Legacy Commission held a virtual meeting with representatives of the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to work on the country’s official participation in the Sports for Climate Action strategy. Recognising the importance of consolidating and implementing social responsibility approaches through tangible action, mainly in the area of sustainability, and building on the initiatives implemented by the IOC, with the support of the UN, the NOC will participate in the Sports for Climate Action strategy. The aim is to unite everyone’s efforts to jointly develop the agenda of climate action in sport. More details here.
29 june 2020 - Nearly 200 people took part in the online “Analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on the Olympic Movement” Forum organised by the Colombian NOC . This Forum also attracted over 10,000 visits on Facebook, and had four sports leaders taking part: Pere Miró, IOC Deputy Director General responsible for Relations with the Olympic Movement; Baltazar Medina, NOC President; Neven Ilic, President of Panam Sports; and José Fernando Arroyo, Rector of the National School of Sport. More info here.
22 may 2020 - The #YoEntrenoEnCasa (I train at home) initiative launched on 17 March by the Colombian NOC has proved a great success. Large numbers of Colombian athletes have taken part, sending videos of themselves training at home. Other athletes have led training sessions from home, offering advice and information to their compatriots. More details here.
09 december 2019 - Colombia’s eighth Olympic Sport Gala took place on 3 December in Bogotá. This awards ceremony organised by the Colombian NOC recognises the best athletes of 2019 in two categories: Olympic sports and non-Olympic sports. Discover here this year’s award-winners.
3 december 2019 - Colombia’s first National Athletes’ Forum took place on 22 November in Cartagena. Participants included nearly 50 athletes from various disciplines; Colombian NOC President Baltazar Medina; the Chair of the NOC’s Athletes’ Commission, Paulo César Villar Nieto; and the NOC’s Academic Director, Constanza Castellanos. The programme featured workshops and talks covering, among other things, the assistance programmes for athletes offered by Olympic Solidarity and Panam Sports, the work of the NOC Athletes’ Commission, the IOC Athlete365 platform, and athletes’ image rights. More info here.
29 october 2019 - On 22 October, the Executive Committee of the Colombian NOC , whose President is Baltazar Medina, the national sports federations, the NOC’s partners and high-level athletes celebrated the creation of a national sports ministry. The first Sports Minister in the history of Colombia, Ernesto Lucena Barrero, was honoured by the Colombian Olympic family. The ceremony was held at the Club El Nogal in Bogotá, where the new Sports Minister trained as an athlete, in the presence of athletes Oscar Figueroa, Francisco Mosquera, Luis Javier Mosquera, Jossimar Calvo, Arénas Lorena, Daniel Restrepo, Yuberjen Martínez and Ceiber Ávila (photo). More details here.
14 october 2019 - The 9th International Congress on Sports Sciences was held on 4 and October at the Sports and Leisure Institute (IDRD) in Bogota, in the presence of Colombian NOC President Baltazar Medina, and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) independent expert Richard McLaren. In all, there were 19 lectures, two panel discussions and 16 talks for the more-than 300 participants. Those attending included sports ministry leaders and staff, representatives of the NOC, federations, leagues and clubs, as well as guests from the NOCs of Panama, Ecuador and Bolivia, plus NOC partner university students. More details here.
22 July 2019 - The Colombian NOC has announced that tennis players Juan Sebastián Cabal and Robert Farah, winners of the doubles event at Wimbledon 2019, have received the National Order of Merit (Grand Cross Extraordinary). The distinction was awarded by the President of the Colombian Republic, Iván Duque Márquez, at a ceremony held at the Casa de Nariño, the official presidential residence in Bogotá. Many personalities were present, including Vice-President of the Republic Marta Lucía Ramírez, Coldeportes Director Ernesto Lucena, Colombian Tennis Federation Director Carlos Ortiz and the families of the two players. More detailshere.
28 june 2019 - The Colombian NOC received a visit from Rigoberta Menchú, 1992 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, at the invitation of NOC President Baltazar Medina. After thanking the NOC staff for their welcome, Rigoberta invited all the NOC members to continue to work towards peace through education, so that humanity as a whole could contribute to peace, human rights and ethnic integrity. More info here. This year, Olympic Day was symbolically celebrated at the Francisco de Paula Santander Police Cadets School and the National University of Colombia, where sport and physical education, along with the values of excellence, friendship and respect, play a very important role. A number of sports and cultural activities were offered to the many participants, on the theme “Move, learn and discover”. More info here.
18 april 2019 - Juan Sebastián Sánchez, a member of the IOC’s Young Change-Makers (YCM) programme, has completed his four-month Vuela la Paz (Peace Takes Flight) project, which was led by the Academic Department of the Colombian NOC in cooperation with the Valle del Cauca Flying Disc League. The aim of the project was to use Ultimate Frisbee as a means of resolving conflict and fostering social integration, offering the community of Buenaventura the chance to enjoy a sports experience as an athlete, coach or leader. More details here.
08 april 2019 - At the General Assembly of the Colombian NOC , the NOC President, Baltazar Medina, presented Luis Javier Mosquera (photo) with his weightlifting bronze medal (69kg category) from the Olympic Games Rio 2016. He was awarded the medal after Izzat Artykov (Kyrgyzstan) was disqualified for failing doping tests. An Olympic diploma was also presented to boxer Ceiber Ávila during the General Assembly. More info here.
01 april 2019 - The Colombian NOC has announced that the city of Cali has been chosen as host city for the very first Junior Pan Am Games in 2021. The decision was made by the Executive Committee of the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO), chaired by IOC Member Neven Ilic, at its meeting in San José (Costa Rica). The Junior Pan Am Games will welcome athletes from 41 countries aged from 18 to 22. The city of Cali has already hosted several international sports competitions, including the World Games in 2013, the 2015 World Junior Athletics Championships and the U-20 World Cup in 2011. More info here.
18 March 2019 - On 6 March, the Colombian NOC signed a cooperation agreement with the Faculty of Medicine at the National University of Colombia, aimed at jointly developing training, organisation and administration programmes in the fields of sports sciences, leisure, education and physical activity. NOC President Baltazar Medina and the Dean of the Faculty, José Ricardo Navarro Vargas, signed the agreement, which will lead to mutual cooperation mechanisms to create, develop and implement academic training, research and dissemination projects and promote Olympic Movement-related studies. More details here.
08 March 2019 - The University of San Buenaventura in Cartagena recently hosted an Olympic studies symposium. Over 150 people, including physical education and psychology students and professionals from various sectors, were in attendance. The event was chaired by Baltazar Medina, President of the Colombian NOC , who highlighted in his speech the responsibility of sports stakeholders in reinforcing the Olympic values and the importance of transparency, good governance and fair play. More info here
01 March 2019 - The first module of the Olympic sports management advanced course (GOLD), organised by the Academic Department of the Colombian NOC , was held in the auditorium of the University of the Andean Region on 22 and 23 February. Sixteen of the 49 participants gave their presentations as part of chapter 1, Managing an Olympic Sports Organisation. More info here.
04 February 2019 - 25 January in Bogotá saw the start of the sixth edition of the Olympic Solidarity advanced sports management course (GOLD) for Colombia. At the opening ceremony, Colombian NOC member Armando Farfán Peña welcomed the 54 participants. These had been selected from more than a hundred candidates from national sports federations, sports leagues and sports institutes in Bogotá, Meta, Atlántico, Cundinamarca, Córdoba and Cauca. More details here.
20 December 2018 - Caterine Ibargüen (left in photo) has been named Colombian athlete of the year for 2018. The President of the Colombian NOC , Baltazar Medina (right in photo), presented her with the Altius Award in Gold, the NOC’s highest honour, at a Colombian sports gala held on 11 December in Bogotá. You can see the full list of Altius Award recipients for 2018 here. Having already been named female World Athlete of the Year by the IAAF (see “IFs”), Ibargüen was also honoured by the President of Colombia, Iván Duque Márquez, and received awards from the newspaper El Espectador, the Colombian Athletics Federation and the Colombian Association of Sports Journalists. More details here.
10 December 2018 - On 26 November the Colombian NOC signed a cooperation agreement with Saitama prefecture in Japan, in preparation for Colombian athletes’participation in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. The signature ceremony in Tokyowas attended by Ciro Solano Hurtado and José Luis Echeverry Azcárate, secretary general and vice-president respectively of the Colombian NOC, and on the Japanese side by the governor of Saitama prefecture, the mayor of Sako and thePresident of the Satoe Gakuen Educational Association. More info here. Elsewhere, NOC President Baltazar Medina and Tirso Zorro, high-level sports coordinator for Coldeportes, were awarded their MEMOS diplomas (Executive Masters in SportsOrganisationManagement) at a ceremony in Lausanne on 23 November. The Masters programme is supported by Olympic Solidarity. More info here.
19 November 2018 - A sports administration course concluded on 3 November at the Colombian NOC headquarters in Bogotá. Some 62 Colombian sports officials took part. The subjects addressed were: international sports law, sports marketing, IOC funding and the positioning of Olympic sports organisations, Olympic sports delegations and events organisation. More details here.
23 July 2018 - The third module of the International Masters in sports law at the University of Lleyda was officially launched by the President of the Colombian NOC , Baltazar Medina, in a ceremony attended by the course director, Andreu Camps, and NOC Director Constanza Castellanos. Between 16 and 23 July, at the Antioquia Sports Institute in Medellín, the participants attended classes with professors from Spain, Chile, Panama and Colombia. Students from Chile and Peru were also among the participants. More info here.
2 July 2018 - Educational, cultural and sports activities brought the Olympic Day celebrations in Bogotá to a close on 24 June. The various activities, organised through the Education Department of the Colombian NOC , brought together hundreds of people in the National Park. Since 13 June, the NOC has been organising a series of events to promote physical activity and the Olympic values. More info here.
26 June 2018 - On 22 June, the Colombian NOC , through its Olympic Academy, launched “Olympism for Children”, the first part of a broader “Olympism for All” project. The project is aimed at promoting the history, values and principles of Olympism among the general population. The opening ceremony was held at the University of Cundinamarca, in the presence of students, NOC President Baltazar Medina and numerous representatives of the academic and sports worlds. More details here.