Home|Sports|Miller to serve on technical committee of Pan Am GamesSports
Sheldon LongleySend an emailOctober 11, 2023 25 2 minute readFacebookTwitterLinkedInShare via Email
The sports year for Team Bahamas is not done as yet as there is a major multi-sport event on the calendar.
The 2023 Pan American Games, officially the 19th Pan Am Games and commonly known as Santiago 2023, is set for October 20 to November 5, in Santiago, Chile.
Nearly 7,000 athletes from 41 countries from around the region are set to take part in the multi-sport event – the biggest on the calendar for 2023 for countries in this region. There will be a total of 425 events in 39 sporting disciplines and the opening and closing ceremonies will take place at the Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos in Santiago.
Team Bahamas is set to be finalized later this week, but according to reports, the country will take part in a number of disciplines, highlighted by athletics and swimming.
Among the officials, The Bahamas will once again be well represented as former Bahamas Olympic Committee (BOC) President Wellington Miller will serve on the technical committee of the games. He leaves for Santiago today and is looking forward to the challenge at hand.
Miller is serving as an official for the quadrennial games for the third consecutive time – in 2015 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on the coordination committee, and for the last two games on the technical committee. The 2019 event was held in Lima, Peru.
“It’s a great feeling. Just to serve in this capacity is an accomplishment for myself, and for The Bahamas,” said Miller. “I must have impressed them in order to keep getting invited to serve. This gives my country an opportunity to have athletes in the field of play and also someone around the table as a technical official. It’s an opportunity that I certainly don’t take lightly, and I will represent The Bahamas to the best of my ability.”
Having been invited to serve on the committee, Miller is on his second trip to the Chilean capital this year. He begins his 10 and a half hour journey today and will be in Santiago for nearly four weeks.
“I was down there earlier this year, just basically going through the theory of what is required,” said Miller. “Now, they wanted us to come down a week in advance of the games to go through everything as it relates to medical, logistics, facility readiness and just general maintenance and organization of the games. Everyone on the technical committee will have six sporting disciplines in his or her portfolio, so it will be quite tedious for us getting around to the all of the respective sports. I’m just honored to be sitting around the table and making a contribution. Each day of the games, we have to give verbal and written reports, and be in meetings, so there is a lot that is required. At the end of the games, we have to give a final report. It is required that we are specific and precise so as you could imagine, this is a huge task.”
The technical committee of Santiago 2023 is responsible for the overall running and management of the games.
“It gives me great pride to represent my country at this high level,” said Miller. “Earlier this year, I served on the CAC (Central American and Caribbean) Games Technical Committee, and now, to do it at the Pan Am Games level again is a great experience and I’m looking forward to it. I just want to encourage as much Bahamians as possible to get involved with sports and sports management because it opens many doors socially and professionally. It’s a great way to travel and see the world and make a contribution to the development of young Bahamians and sports in The Bahamas in general.”
Miller is the first Bahamian to serve on the technical committees for both the CAC and Pan Am Games.