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Panam Sports

The continental association of the 41 National Olympic Committees of the Americas, founded in London in 1948 as PASO/ODEPA and renamed Panam Sports in 2018; it owns the Pan American Games and the Junior Pan American Games.
✓ Last reviewed: September 2026
Founded8 August 1948, London — as the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO / ODEPA)
HeadquartersMexico City, Mexico
Renamed2018, to Panam Sports
Games it ownsPan American Games; Junior Pan American Games
Members41 National Olympic Committees
PresidentNeven Ilic (Chile), re-elected October 2024 for 2024-2028
Next Pan American GamesLima, 23 July - 8 August 2027 (XX edition)
Parapan American GamesOwned by the Americas Paralympic Committee, bid jointly since 2015

What is Panam Sports?

Panam Sports is the continental association of the National Olympic Committees of the Americas. It groups 41 NOCs from North America, Central America, the Caribbean and South America into a single body that owns and awards the region's principal multi-sport competition, the Pan American Games.[1] [4]

The organisation occupies the layer of the Olympic structure that sits between a National Olympic Committee and the IOC: it does not select athletes, which is the NOCs' function, and it does not set the rules of any sport, which is the business of the international federations. What it controls is a Games franchise and the qualification pathway attached to it.[10]

For anyone reading a competition record, the practical consequence is that a result at the Pan American Games is a result at an event owned by Panam Sports and entered through an NOC, not through a club or a national federation acting alone. The same is true of the Junior Pan American Games, which the body created in 2021.[3] [7]

What does Panam Sports govern or do?

Panam Sports awards its Games to a host city under a host city contract, sets the sports programme, approves the qualification system for each sport, and administers Olympic Solidarity programmes in the region. The Lima 2027 host city contract was signed with the local organising committee on 20 February 2025, and the Panam Sports Executive Board moved the Games a week later in the calendar, to 23 July - 8 August 2027, because of congestion in the 2027 international calendar.[12] [6]

The sports programme is also its decision: Panam Sports confirmed 36 sports for Lima 2027 and defined the programme for Asuncion 2025. Its qualification manuals route quota places through the Pan American confederations and back to the NOCs, which means the body is a step in Olympic qualification as well as in continental qualification — Panam Sports describes Lima 2027 as the main qualifying event in the Americas for the 2028 Olympic Games.[6]

This page could not retrieve the Panam Sports statutes; the body's statutes page did not return readable text, so the description of its powers rests on its own published contract and programme decisions rather than on the governing instrument.

When was Panam Sports founded and where is it based?

Panam Sports states that it was established on 8 August 1948 during the London Olympic Games, and that the IOC recognised it in the same year, with Avery Brundage as first president.[2] [1] Those two dates come from the organisation's own history and are reported here as its account; this page did not locate an independent instrument confirming the 1948 recognition.

Three names apply to the same body. It was founded as the Pan American Sports Organization, known by the English acronym PASO and by the Spanish ODEPA (Organizacion Deportiva Panamericana). The Olympic Charter in force from 3 February 2026 lists the body in its table of abbreviations as PANAM SPORTS — Pan-American Sports Organisation; the previous edition, in force from 30 January 2025, still carried the older acronym PASO.[10] The organisation states that it rebranded to Panam Sports in 2018, under Neven Ilic, with a new name, image and style.[1] [3]

The headquarters has been in Mexico City since 2005, and the body states it opened further offices in Santiago and Miami in 2021.[1] Ilic has been president since 2017 and was re-elected at the LXII General Assembly in Asuncion on 2 October 2024, by 37 votes to 16, for a term running to 2028.[5]

How is Panam Sports recognised?

Its standing rests on the Olympic Charter. Rule 3.2 provides that the IOC "may also recognise associations of NOCs formed at continental or world level", that such associations "shall have, where possible, the status of legal persons", that "they must comply with the Olympic Charter", and that "their statutes are subject to the approval of the IOC".[10] Panam Sports is the association so recognised for the Americas; the Charter's abbreviations table lists it as PANAM SPORTS.[10]

Recognition also runs the other way. Rule 27.7.6 gives each NOC the right to "belong to associations of NOCs recognised by the IOC", and Rule 27.7.5 the right to "take part in activities led or patronised by the IOC, including regional Games" — the provisions that make membership of Panam Sports a right of the NOC rather than a grant from the continental body.[10]

Separately, the ANOC Constitution names Panam Sports as one of the five Continental Associations within the worldwide association of NOCs, alongside ANOCA, the OCA, the EOC and ONOC.[11]

What does Panam Sports organise?

Two Games belong to Panam Sports. The Pan American Games have been held every four years since Buenos Aires 1951, which the organisation records as opening with 21 countries and 2,513 athletes; Santiago 2023 was the most recent edition, and Lima 2027 is next, with more than 7,000 athletes from 41 countries expected across 36 sports.[3] [6]

The Junior Pan American Games were created for the Cali 2021 edition and held a second time in Asuncion from 9 to 23 August 2025, with 4,206 athletes from 41 countries in 28 sports and 218 direct qualification places for Lima 2027 attached to gold medals.[7]

The Parapan American Games are a separate property. The Americas Paralympic Committee describes itself as the body responsible for organising them, and the IPC records a 2015 agreement between the Americas Paralympic Committee and PASO under which the two Games are bid for together on a "One Bid, One City" basis, first applied at Santiago 2023.[9] [8] Panam Sports does not own them.

Who are its members?

Panam Sports states that it "is made up of 41 member nations" — the National Olympic Committees recognised by the IOC across the Americas, from Canada to Argentina and across the Caribbean.[4] Membership grew from the 21 countries that competed at the first Pan American Games in 1951 to 41 by 2015, a figure the organisation's history repeats.[1]

Members vote at the General Assembly, which elects the president and the executive; Ilic was returned by 37 votes to 16 over Keith Joseph.[5] Two sub-regional bodies operate inside the same territory without being subordinate to Panam Sports: Centro Caribe Sports, which owns the Central American and Caribbean Games, and ODESUR, which owns the South American Games. Their member NOCs are also Panam Sports members.[11]

Because membership is derived from IOC recognition of the NOC, a suspension at IOC level flows through to continental entry rights rather than being decided independently at continental level.[10]

References

  1. Panam Sports — History. Accessed September 2026.
  2. Panam Sports — Panam Sports marks 78 years of uniting the Americas through sport, 8 August 2026. Accessed September 2026.
  3. Panam Sports — From PASO to Panam Sports: uniting sports in America for 70 years. Accessed September 2026.
  4. Panam Sports — Members. Accessed September 2026.
  5. Panam Sports — Neven Ilic re-elected President of Panam Sports (LXII General Assembly, Asuncion, 2 October 2024). Accessed September 2026.
  6. Panam Sports — The Lima 2027 Pan American Games have a new date. Accessed September 2026.
  7. ANOC — The Asuncion 2025 Junior Pan American Games by number. Accessed September 2026.
  8. International Paralympic Committee — Santiago 2023 Parapan American Games. Accessed September 2026.
  9. Americas Paralympic Committee — About us. Accessed September 2026.
  10. International Olympic Committee — Olympic Charter, in force as from 3 February 2026 (PDF). Accessed September 2026.
  11. ANOC — Constitution of the Association of National Olympic Committees (PDF). Accessed September 2026.
  12. Panam Sports — Official contract signed between Panam Sports and Lima 2027. Accessed September 2026.