00:00Abelardo de la Espriella inherited a Ministry of Sport adrift.
00:04His rise to power from the sports world is marked by a battered economy,
00:09questioned and whose future does not even seem completely assured.
00:13The challenge is enormous. The new minister, Juliana Gutiérrez, Fico's sister,
00:19He will not only have to correct the problems left over the last four years,
00:23but rather define what the purpose of a Ministry of Sport is.
00:26and what place the portfolio will have within the project that the new leader has to reduce the size of the State.
00:33The paradox is striking.
00:34When de la Espriella won the elections, several Colombian athletes publicly celebrated his victory.
00:41There is anticipation in the sector for a change after years of complaints against the government of Gustavo Petro.
00:48However, it is still unclear what the new government's sports policy will be.
00:52We don't know how the new minister, with her limited experience in this field, will respond.
00:58to a crisis that is much deeper than raising money to take athletes to the Olympic Games.
01:04To understand it, we must first dismantle a narrative.
01:08Petro was not simply the president who took money away from sports.
01:12His government had the highest allocations since the ministry's creation.
01:16Nobody invested in sports like the former president.
01:19In 2024 the portfolio reached approximately 1.3 trillion pesos.
01:24The problem was that less than a third of that money ended up being spent.
01:28Then came the fiscal crisis and the budget fell sharply.
01:33In other words, Petro's government was simultaneously the government of historical resources and the government of...
01:39major cutbacks.
01:40By 2026, the resources ended up being almost 500 billion pesos.
01:45There were going to be even fewer, but the entire sector took to the streets to protest.
01:50Were the athletes abandoned?
01:53There were complaints, delays, uncertainty, and moments when athletes and federations feared they would be left without support.
02:01However, the cuts were mitigated and high performance did not end up completely defunded.
02:08A demonstration of this was recently seen at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo.
02:15Colombia finished second with a historic performance.
02:18266 medals and almost 100 golds.
02:21To participate, the ministry contributed 3.662 billion.
02:25Without public investment, those results would hardly have been possible.
02:29So where was the real failure?
02:32It must be understood that the objective of a sports ministry goes far beyond financing national teams and
02:39celebrate medals.
02:40That's just one leg of the table.
02:42That portfolio also supports school sports, physical activity, recreation, infrastructure, coach training, and talent identification.
02:50talent
02:51and programs in territories where the municipalities do not have the capacity to finance their own sports system.
02:59And that is precisely where budgetary and implementation problems ended up leaving the deepest wounds.
03:07Funding for top athletes is seen as an urgent matter.
03:11Then, the system quickly addresses their needs.
03:15But what happens to the weakest links in the chain when the budget is not spent?
03:21That was, paradoxically, one of Petro's own big bets in sports.
03:27His government came to power promising to democratize sport.
03:30Less exclusive obsession with high performance and more training, sports schools and opportunities in the regions.
03:39But instability ended up permeating everything.
03:42Four female ministers held the position in four years.
03:45There were serious implementation problems and a historic opportunity to strengthen the base was lost.
03:51While the big names, in the end, were still able to be prioritized,
03:55The programs whose results will appear in ten years were much more exposed.
04:00And that's where the other problem arises, the main challenge for the new minister.
04:05Colombia can continue winning medals while its system weakens.
04:09An Olympic champion is not formed during the four years of a government.
04:13The athletes who are in the elite today come from processes built over a decade or more.
04:19Therefore, reducing schools, scouting, youth competitions, or infrastructure
04:25It may not be reflected immediately in the medal count.
04:28The blow comes later, when the talent that was supposed to replace the current figures...
04:34He never managed to get into or stay in the system.
04:38Our country currently has a privileged generation.
04:42The question is how to make that last over time.
04:46The problem is also territorial.
04:48Bogotá, Medellín, or Cali can invest large amounts of their own resources,
04:53But many small municipalities depend on the nation to support their programs.
04:59There, sport doesn't just mean producing champions either.
05:03It could be education, health, or making the most of free time
05:07and an alternative for children and young people in vulnerable contexts.
05:12That is probably the least visible part of the ministry
05:16and, at the same time, one of those facing the greatest uncertainty with the change of government.
05:22And there is an even greater paradox.
05:24Gustavo Petro even questioned the need for sports to have a ministry.
05:29Now, a president has arrived who has promised to shrink the state.
05:34The question, then, is back on the table.
05:38Will the wallet survive?
05:39Because eliminating it can reduce bureaucracy,
05:42but also to deprive sport of its own seat in the Council of Ministers
05:47and weaken its ability to relate to education, health, finance and the private sector.
05:55This is the real challenge facing the new government.
05:58It's not just about securing resources for Los Angeles 2028,
06:03nor that Colombia continues to celebrate medals.
06:06That will surely happen.
06:08The new administration will have to decide how to finance the system.
06:12Overcoming the cuts, attracting private investment,
06:15Restore implementation, strengthen regions
06:18and define what to do with school and community sports.
06:22After four years of contradictions,
06:24The big question in sports is no longer how many medals Colombia can win.
06:29It goes beyond that.
06:30Something more basic.
06:31What kind of sports ministry does the country want?
06:34And will we be able, with the new government,
06:36to prove that this portfolio is still worth keeping?
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