Puerto Rico lays out plan for 2016 Olympic Games

San Juan, Feb 6 (IANS/EFE) The Puerto Rican Olympic Committee presented its “Destination Rio 2016″ plan for training the Caribbean island’s athletes by having them take part in all competitions leading up to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Among the next international contests in which the Puerto Rican delegation will compete will be the Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz and the Youth Olympics in China, both in 2014, and the Pan American Games at Toronto in 2015.

“Our Olympic agenda is ambitious. But it has to be. Sports are a national project that unites us, fills us with optimism, gets us working together, moves the economy and and gives us a growing international reputation,” Puerto Rican Olympic Committee president Sara Rosario said.

The committee opened on Tuesday in San Juan’s Casa Olimpica an exhibition that forms part of the International Olympic Committee’s honouring of Puerto Rico’s medallists at the last Olympic Games in London, Jaime Espinal and Javier Culson, Rosario said.

The committee will also give continuity to Puerto Rico’s application to host the Pan American Games in 2023, Rosario said.