Magdalena Molina Romero has achieved her goal: To put into practice the conclusions of the final project she presented in the framework of the 5th edition of the FIFA/CIES Programme organised in cooperation with Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR). Her project, entitled “North, Central America and Caribbean World Masters Athletics Championships (NCCWMA 2014)” materialised in the form of a competition organised from 21 to 24 August 2014 in San José.
“When I started the UCR/FIFA/CIES Programme, my main objective was to put all the knowledge gained in the classroom into practice. My passion for athletics led me to develop a project allowing Costa Rica to host the NCCWMA 2014 event. Until then, my country had never had the opportunity to organise an athletics event on this scale.
I therefore used “my new tools”, in particular those linked to management of sport events, to develop a strategy and a logistics concept suited to an event such as the NCCWAMA Championships.
The first step was to present the project to the executive committee of the Master Athletics Association of Costa Rica. After the members gave me the go-ahead, I presented my concept to the NCCWMA Assembly during its meeting in Brazil. Puerto Rico was also a candidate to host the competition, but my project was unanimously chosen.
We then had to get down to work, to materialise everything that existed only “on paper”. After a visit from a World Masters Athletics (WMA) committee in January 2014, we were able to start preparing for the competition. The icing on the cake was that I was appointed manager of the event.
The competition was a success at several levels: The record number of athletes present and of countries represented. Actually, 23 nations took part in the NCCWMA 2014 event, which almost made them a sort of “Mundial”. Moreover, we benefited from extensive media coverage at the national and international levels. The success of the competition and the compliments on the organisation allowed Costa Rica to establish itself as a serious candidate to organise other events on the same scale.
Finally, WMA recognised the efforts made by my team by appointing me women’s representative within the NCCWMA Executive Committee.
In conclusion, I would like to thank the people in charge of the UCR/FIFA/CIES Programme for giving me the opportunity to develop such a project, thereby allowing sport management in Costa Rica to enhance its quality. Special thanks to Gabriela Schaer, the head of the event management module, who constantly gave me useful advice and helped me make “my dream” come true, with the support of the Costa Rican Institute of Sport and Leisure.
I don’t know how many projects developed in the framework of the FIFA/CIES International University Network have been implemented. But I am happy and proud to have achieved my goal and thereby to have contributed to the development of sport in my country.”