World Athletics names Juantorena honorary member of its council and awards him the Gold Merit Order

August 20, 2023

This Friday, two-time Olympic champion Alberto Juantorena was named honorary member of the World Athletics (WA) Council and was awarded the WA Gold Merit Order, the highest distinction granted by that organization.

The announcement was made by its president, British Sebastian Coe, at the closing of the WA congress held in Budapest prior to the XIX World Athletics Championships 2023.

Coe praised the trajectory of the monarch of the 400 and 800 meters at the Montreal 1976 Olympic Games, as well as his leadership outside the track to promote the development of athletics on the planet.

In addition to the presidency of the Cuban Athletics Federation, Juantorena held one of the vice presidencies of Inder for 28 years. At the international level, he was part of WA's World Council from 1987 until this year and served with recognized success as vice president between 2015 and 2019.

"We will seek the opportunity for him to receive these recognitions under the best possible circumstances," said Coe, after also highlighting his performance as vice president of the Cuban Olympic Committee (COC) and leader of the Cuban Paralympic Committee.

Endowed with exceptional charisma, a talkative man and defender of athletics in any space, Juantorena was part of different commissions within the IAAF and WA, and worked for the development of new generations.

Similar recognitions were awarded to another great star of athletics, the former pole vaulter Sergey Bubka. Olympic champion in Seoul 1988, the Ukrainian broke the world record on 35 occasions and was crowned in six consecutive world championships, starting with Helsinki 1983.

Once retired, he was vice president of the top governing body of athletics between 2007 and 2023, a position he will continue to hold honorarily.

Congress participants, held at the Hungexpo exhibition center, also gave a standing ovation to Colombian Ximena Restrepo, who received the WA Merit Plaque, just hours after being ratified as vice president of the organization.

Some sources consulted by JIT agree that she could become Coe's successor, which would make her the first woman to lead the destiny of athletics at the global level.

In addition to the electoral process that ratified the British for a third and final term, the conclave left a group of modifications on issues related to the disciplinary and appeals court; it accepted accountability for the use of the budget in 2022 and the venues and dates of upcoming global events were officially announced, among other matters.