María Caridad Colon Proposal to Integrate the International Olympic Committee

June 19, 2020

María Caridad Colón, the Cuban woman who for the first time raised Latin American women to the highest place on the Olympic podium, made news again on June 10th when her candidacy for membership in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was announced.

If elected in that organization's virtual session next July, the baracoense, winner of the laurel crown in javelin throwing at the Moscow-1980 Olympic Games, would be the third woman south of the Rio Bravo to join the current membership, which today stands at one hundred names.

Two women, with more political than sports careers, are the only ones from that region that appear in the IOC: the former synchronized swimmer from Aruba, Nicole Hoevertsz, participant in the competition under the five rings of Los Angeles-1984, in Central American and Caribbean events and world competitions, became permanent undersecretary of her country's Council of Ministers; while the former president of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, practiced cycling and swimming recreationally.

As Tomás Bach, president of the IOC, stated when evaluating the present candidacy, which includes the Croatian Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, the Saudi Reema Bandar Al-Saud, the Mongolian Battushig Batbold and the British Sebastian Coe, the latter in his capacity as president of World Athletics, "with the election of these five candidates the Olympic movement would benefit from an extremely valuable range of skills and experiences. We would also be raising female membership to 39 people."

Cuba has had four seats on the IOC. Porfirio Franca y Álvarez de Campa was the first, between the years 1923 and 1938, Miguel Ángel Moenck y Peralta (1938-1969), Manuel González Guerra (1973-1993) and Reynaldo González López (1995-2015).

Today there are more than 200 national Olympic committees (NOC) that make up the governing body of sport, but only 36% of them, 74, have at least one seat. Five nations, those of Canada, United States, Switzerland, France and China, are currently the only ones with three IOC members, while another 16 have two.

One doesn't need to do much math to conclude that it is quite difficult to find a space in Lausanne, headquarters of the entity that came into being thanks to the efforts of the Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, on June 23, 1894. The IOC has a governing document, which is its normative regulation, called the Olympic Charter, in which it establishes the requirements for a seat.

It establishes a majority (no more than 70), which does not require a specific function or position, but in this case no country can have more than one; it allocates 15 slots for active athletes, and an equal number of presidents or leaders at the highest level of international federations (IF), of associations of IF or of other organizations recognized by the IOC, and also 15 for those who hold positions of presidents or leaders at the highest level of NOCs or of world or continental associations of NOCs. For these either, two from the same nationality are not permitted. They are eligible for eight years and mandatory retirement comes at age 70.

There is a high group of honorary members, which today reaches 48. For such distinction, the Olympic Charter legislates remaining for more than ten years with exceptional services. In contrast, honor members are persons external to the IOC, with eminent contributions. At this time there are only two: the American and former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, and the Senegalese Youssoupha Ndiaye. And it provides for the President of honor, a position held by the previous chief, the Belgian Jacques Rogge. All with a voice, but without a vote.