By Patrick Lujan

ONOC President Dr. Robin Mitchell from Fiji, ONOC Secretary General Ric Blas from Guam and GNOC member Roger Wahl speak during today’s press conference.

The Green Ring.

That is the ring that represents 17 countries of the Oceania region in the five Olympic rings.

Over 150 delegates from the the Oceania region are on Guam this week for the Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) Annual General Assembly at the Leo Palace Resorts in Mannengon, Yona.

Tuesday morning, ONOC President Dr. Robin Mitchell and ONOC Secretary General/GNOC President Ricardo Blas briefed the media on the events and goals of the week.

The primary focus for the workshops and meetings is to prepare the countries for the upcoming 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and 2020 Olympics in Tokyo as well as other smaller sporting events in between.

According to Dr. Mitchell, one of the major challenges for the Oceania countries is the qualifying standards for the Olympics outside of Australia and New Zealand.

“It’s very hard for our island athletes to qualify for the Olympics, and that’s a concern,” Mitchell stated.

In addition to the preparation for the Olympics, there are the Youth Olympics and other regional Games to prepare for including this summer’s Micronesian Games in Pohnpei and the 2015 Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea.

For Guam, Blas is hoping that hosting such an important assembly would showcase the facilities on Guam in hopes of making the island a regional training site for other Oceania countries.

Other Topics

– Notable attendees are: John Coates, Vice President of the IOC/President of Australian Olympic Committee; Barbara Kendall, IOC member/Windsurfing Olympic medalist (1992 Gold, 1996 Silver, 2000 Bronze); Sergey Bubka, 1988 Pole Vault Olympic Gold medalist/President of Ukraine Olympic Committee

– Discussions on possible assertion of Australia and New Zealand into the Pacific Games

– Protection of environments through the National Olympic Committees

– Five (5) non-Olympic countries such as CNMI have been invited to participate this week

– Proper Governance Seminar will be given to all delegates by UOG Professor Dr. Ron McNinch

– General Assembly will be on Saturday at Leo Palace with workshops throughout the week

17 Oceania Countries: American Samoa, Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Guam, Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Salomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu