Mario Vazquez Rana Recuperates for Birthday

6/6/2013

Mario Vazquez Rana at the February PASO meeting. (ATR)

(ATR) Pan Am Sports Organization president Mario Vazquez Rana celebrates a birthday, despite a trip to the hospital. 

He had planned surgery to remove a gall bladder and is otherwise fine and at home, PASO secretary general Jimena Saldana, tells Around the Rings . 

The sports leader turns 82 on June 7 and will still hold a party planned at his Mexico City residence. 

Vazquez Rana has been the PASO president since 1975, a longevity unmatched in the Olympic Family. He resigned from the IOC and other posts in 2012 rather than engage in a political struggle for control of the Association of National Olympic Committees, which he headed. 

His surgery means he will not attend the ANOC general assembly in Lausanne next week. 

He held on to the PASO presidency and remains active with the group that represents 42 national Olympic committees in the Americas. He took part in the recent visits of the PASO evaluation commission for the 2019 Pan Am Games, travelling to Venezuela, Argentina, Chile and Peru. The commission is at work this week on its report. 

Vazquez Rana had a health scare in 2003 when he was hospitalized for pneumonia in Santo Domingo, just as the Pan Am Games opened in the Dominican capital. 

Written by Ed Hula. 

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