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Colombia’s multiple world champion roller speed skater Andres Felipe Muñoz has revealed that he plans to continue competing in the hope that his sport’s appearance in the Summer Youth Olympic Games here will help it earn a place at Paris 2024.
The 24-time world champion is at Paseo de la Costa in Argentinia’s capital to follow Buenos Aires 2018 as one of the selected athletes in the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Athlete Role Model programme.
“I think [being included in the Youth Olympic Games programme] is the biggest real step going into the Olympics,” he said.
“Those young kids are really enjoying this opportunity and they’re working really hard to become Olympians and to see also their dream come true – being in Paris.”
If the sport does get included on the programme for Paris 2024, then Muñoz will be 36.
“We are working for that,” he said.
“We really want to show our sport the way it is.
“It’s fast, with contact, we’ve got emotion and you see the effort from each skater.
“It’s the whole life going into the track.
“It’s a dream.
“If it could be true, for sure I will wait [before retiring from the sport].”
A decision on which sports will be added to the programme for Paris 2024 is due to be announced by the IOC next year.
“I will wait, because we [Colombia] have become world champions [in Arnhem in The Netherlands in July] but we feel that one step is left,” Muñoz said.
“I mean, it’s the rings.
“It would be amazing.”
Muñoz was joined on Sunday (October 7) by IOC President Thomas Bach when the first medal in the sport was won, appropriately, by Colombia’s Gabriela Isabel Rueda Rueda.
She won the women’s combined 1,000m sprint, leaving Munoz wondering what it would have been like if roller sports was already part of the Olympic programme.
“I think I would have won maybe two or three [Olympic medals],” he said.
“It would’ve been amazing.
“It’s frustrating, but it’s not time to think about the past.
“We need to think about the present and the bright future that we have.
“We want to be there.”
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Duncan Mackay is the founding editor of insidethegames.biz, the world’s leading and most influential independent Olympic news website. He was voted the British Sports Writer of the Year in 2004, British News Story of the Year in 2004 and British Sports Internet Reporter of the Year in 2009. Mackay is one of Britain’s best-connected journalists and during the 16 years he worked at The Guardian and The Observer he regularly broke several major exclusive stories. He was also the only newspaper journalist in Britain to correctly predict that London would win its bid for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
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For nearly 15 years now, insidethegames.biz has been at the forefront of reporting fearlessly on what happens in the Olympic Movement. As the first website not to be placed behind a paywall, we have made news about the International Olympic Committee, the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Commonwealth Games and other major events more accessible than ever to everybody.
insidethegames.biz has established a global reputation for the excellence of its reporting and breadth of its coverage. For many of our readers from more than 200 countries and territories around the world the website is a vital part of their daily lives. The ping of our free daily email alert, sent every morning at 6.30am UK time 365 days a year, landing in their inbox, is as a familiar part of their day as their first cup of coffee.
Even during the worst times of the COVID-19 pandemic, insidethegames.biz maintained its high standard of reporting on all the news from around the globe on a daily basis. We were the first publication in the world to signal the threat that the Olympic Movement faced from the coronavirus and have provided unparalleled coverage of the pandemic since.
As the world begins to emerge from the COVID crisis, insidethegames.biz would like to invite you to help us on our journey by funding our independent journalism. Your vital support would mean we can continue to report so comprehensively on the Olympic Movement and the events that shape it. It would mean we can keep our website open for everyone. Last year, nearly 25 million people read insidethegames.biz, making us by far the biggest source of independent news on what is happening in world sport.
Every contribution, however big or small, will help maintain and improve our worldwide coverage in the year ahead. Our small and dedicated team were extremely busy last year covering the re-arranged Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, an unprecedented logistical challenge that stretched our tight resources to the limit.
The remainder of 2022 is not going to be any less busy, or less challenging. We had the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing, where we sent a team of four reporters, and coming up are the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, the Summer World University and Asian Games in China, the World Games in Alabama and multiple World Championships. Plus, of course, there is the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Unlike many others, insidethegames.biz is available for everyone to read, regardless of what they can afford to pay. We do this because we believe that sport belongs to everybody, and everybody should be able to read information regardless of their financial situation. While others try to benefit financially from information, we are committed to sharing it with as many people as possible. The greater the number of people that can keep up to date with global events, and understand their impact, the more sport will be forced to be transparent.
Support insidethegames.biz for as little as £10 – it only takes a minute. If you can, please consider supporting us with a regular amount each month. Thank you.
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