Proposals to the Standing Committee of the Dominican Sports Hall of Fame and to Organizing Committee of the XXV Central American and Caribbean Games 2026.
In a couple of years it will be fifty years since the celebration of the XII Central American and Caribbean Sports Games , the “Twelvegames” that in 1974 constituted a true event in the history of sports in the Dominican Republic.
By 2026, games like these will be presented for the third time in the country, in the XXV edition of this regional sports event.
The XII Central American and Caribbean Games were held in the capital city from February 27 to March 13.
participated 2,052 athletes in 18 sports (athletics, basketball, baseball, boxing, cycling, diving, soccer, artistic gymnastics, judo, weightlifting, Olympic wrestling, swimming, water polo, softball, tennis, shooting sports, sailing and volleyball) and the country presented 203 athletes to these games .
It was the first great commitment of Dominican sports, assumed at the time by the Government of Joaquín Balaguer
with the birth of the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center, and with Juan Ulises García Saleta (f) as its great promoter. It was the first time that large and modern sports facilities had been built in the country that would win a single gold medal in the sports fair with Amauris Lamb
in weightlifting, which was a great national rejoicing.
Without a doubt, the celebration of those games constituted a transformation for the good of Dominican sports and from then on we will talk about the before and after of those games.
We would spend hours writing about the anonymous heroes of those games, Max Reynoso with his motto “Everyone’s Commitment”, and his masterful team of press and Propaganda, about Bebesito Martínez Brea, the man from Balaguer and president of the Organizing Committee; Virgilio Travieso technical director with his unforgettable right-hand man Enrique Ripley Marín; of Marcos Jiménez, in charge of transportation, and who provided us with a helicopter with Marcos Rodríguez as pilot, for the aerial photos of the inauguration (there were no drones at the time).
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