The Portuguese Olympic Committee wants to provide athletes with more conditions and agree on a new contract faster

Marco Alves said this Sunday that the Portuguese Olympic Committee (COP) will work to create “ever better conditions” for Portuguese athletes, already having a “closed agenda” with the government.

“We are practically leaving Paris, we will have the opportunity, as in Tokyo, to benefit from these results, including together with the government. We made several proposals for changes after the Tokyo Games, some of them were approved, others were not. so many, and we left here with the spirit of being able to renew these vows, the opportunity to renew a set of changes that, in our opinion and given our experience, can make sense in preparation for the next Games,” he said.

The head of the Portuguese mission to Paris 2024 was speaking at a press conference in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, where Maria Martins ended Portugal’s participation, precisely at the velodrome where Rui Oliveira and Youri Leitan became Olympic champions in the Madison, after which they took second place – silver in the omnium, an unprecedented feat in national Olympism.

“It is in this context that we will work. We already have a closed agenda with the Government on this topic, we will work in this direction so that we can create ever better conditions for our athletes,” he added.

Marco Alves recalled that after Tokyo 2020, the COP came up with “a set of proposals, many of which were also accompanied by increased funding, which at the time of the Paris support agreement was concluded, was not possible” to implement.

“We know what kind of country we live in, so naturally we are ambitious, High Income is nothing else. We would like to see a few more improvements in the situation. The software contract has, I would say, specific features. […] We have managed to make some changes, but only once every four years. The contract, in order to ensure the stability necessary for this process, should not be concluded every year either,” he stressed.

The person in charge reminded that the changes being made now will only bear fruit in 2028 or 2032, “so it is also important to understand what the next tasks will be for the Los Angeles 2028 cycle.”

“We will have the Games on another continent, we will have qualification processes that are not yet known, and we will try, I would not say guess the future, but prepare the work so that we can respond to these challenges,” he said.

In turn, the Secretary General of the CC recalled that the program contract that exists for the Paris 2024 Olympic cycle “does not end today and does not end at the end of the year,” but demonstrated the openness of the organization so that “negotiations, conversations about the future will begin as quickly as possible.”

“Basically, I think there’s a general reading of the understanding here on this issue and therefore we’re certainly not going to wait too long to start finalizing or concluding what we have at this point and then move forward as quickly as possible with a contract with Los Angeles for 2028,” he said.

After several Portuguese Olympians have called on the government for more support in recent days, with Pedro Pichardo even accusing the government of only looking at football, José Manuel Araujo said that “athletes in general are aware that the support they receive from the Olympic Committee through this programme contract is precisely the support that is essential for your high performance.”

“Speaking of this, I also say that what comes from the government for the distribution of the CS for the Olympic training program, in our opinion, is enough. It could be more, of course, it could be more, and we also have this spirit of demands and to try to have a little more compared to the previous cycle, and the positive results also help us to be able to “defend before the government” the reason for the need to increase the resources allocated to sports, he emphasized. .

Araujo also stressed the importance of Luis Montenegro’s presence in Paris to accompany the Portuguese mission, saying he did not remember the Prime Minister’s visit to the Olympic Village or his presence at the competition.

“This is a positive sign. The Prime Minister has clearly stated at various points when he made statements that he was here mainly to follow the events. I understand that this presence is also a signal for more intensive state policy in the field of sports,” he concluded.