Jaime Pizarro

Santiago de Chile, March 23 (PL) - The Chilean Minister of Sports, Jaime Pizarro, visited San Pedro de la Paz, in the Bio Bio Region, venue of the canoeing and rowing competitions in the Pan American Games Santiago 2023.

The Laguna Grande is located in that commune, which will be the farthest stage from the country's capital to host any of the sports programmed for the continental event, considered the most important and complex in the history of this South American nation.

Also known as sprint, sprint canoeing is practiced on calm waters in two types of boats, the kayak and the canoe.

It first participated as an exhibition sport in the 1924 Paris Olympic Games and was officially included in the 1936 Berlin program.

In the Pan American Games it was admitted in Indianapolis 1987 and the historical medal list is led by Cuba, with 37 titles, according to the official page of Santiago 2023.

Rowing has been an Olympic sport since 1900 and the women's category was introduced in Montreal 1976.

Minister Pizarro expressed his satisfaction at bringing the Pan American competitions to Bío Bío and making its inhabitants the protagonists of this sporting festival.

He was accompanied on his trip by the president of the Chilean Olympic Committee, Miguel Ángel Mujica; the executive director of the Santiago 2023 Corporation, Gianna Cunazza; as well as local officials and members of the Chilean team for these disciplines.

Mujica referred to the important legacy left by major sporting events and invited the children of San Pedro de la Paz to be inspired by the athletes in order to develop their skills and have hundreds of new rowers in the future.