María José Alcalá, President of the Mexican Olympic Committee, in an interview with EL PAÍS at her office in Mexico City. Nayeli Cruz
Mexico was ranked world number one for the 1968 Olympics, the first to be held in Latin America and broadcast around the world by satellite. However, the eternal imprint has to do with social protest. Ten days before the inauguration, the Mexican army massacred a still incalculable number of students in Tlatelolco square. It was also the stage for Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos to take a stand against racism. Fifty-four years later, the country is seriously considering hosting the Olympics again in 2036 or 2040 with a different script.
It all starts with María José Alcalá (Mexico City, 51 years old). She broke through the wall of Mexican machismo by becoming the first woman in 98 years to take the reins of the Mexico Olympic Committee (COM). Before that, she was one of the pioneers in diving in the 80’s by winning a junior world championship, the National Sports Award. “That paved the way for great champions like Laura Sánchez, Paola Espinosa, Tatiana Ortiz and Alejandra Orozco,” she says in an interview with EL PAÍS. After leaving the sport, he enrolled in Mexican politics. “It’s scarier to get into politics than nails because if you make a mistake you can damage athletes for life and you’re scarred. As an athlete you can make mistakes and you have second chances,” he adds.
For five years, Alcalá sought a male-only position in the COM structure with little transparency in presidential election procedures. “I always had that in mind because being president is a position where women can show that we have the capacity to manage sports,” she says. In November 2021, Alcalá won the first elections. “The Olympic movement has had its ups and downs when it comes to accommodating inequalities. When they didn’t want to let women take part in the Olympic Games in 1924, we women had to say: Then we’ll make our own games. 98 years passed, and the foundations had to be laid so that we women could compete on an equal footing,” says the Green Party MP.
Well, the idea that Mexico would aim for the Olympics again arose at a meeting between the local Olympic Committee and Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs last June. “In 1968 there were many ambassadors, Mexican diplomats, who contributed to the games, who created a state policy in favor of sport, the importance of physical culture began to be understood. It was reinforced on the issue of roads, transportation. The world got to know Mexico thanks to the Games. Sporting infrastructure was set up,” says the former diver. Most of the sports facilities are still there, such as the university Olympic stadium or the Olympic swimming pool.
The opening of the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968. Images on display at Memorial 68 (Digital copy courtesy of Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco)
“Of course Mexico is able to organize other games. Before cities had to spend billions of dollars, they had to participate in the games. These must now be adapted to the city that wants to organize them. There has to be economic resilience, an alliance of economic participation where there is no burden on the government, where private initiative is involved so that it is a virtuous circle in favor of the country organizing the Games. We have to understand that the sport continues to change and Mexico cannot stay further behind,” says Alcalá, who has held talks with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Over the last 50 years, Mexico has become a great host of sporting events. 1968, the 1970, 1986 and now 2026 World Cups, along with the US and Canada, proved that the country knows how to throw a party. It has also hosted elite games of the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball and most recently the WTA Tour of women’s tennis.
From the Mexican Olympic Committee office, they acknowledge that the road is long. First, a letter must be sent to the International Olympic Committee stating that Mexico wishes to participate as host. From there, it’s time to build the proposal with sustainability, economics, transparency, and governance themes to present during the 2028 Los Angeles Games.” “These six years will be more intense work. We want to form a working group, geopolitical and economic groups. It’s a long road,” he says.
The struggle for equal pay for Mexican athletes
Alcalá also raises another front early in his tenure: pay equality in Mexican sport. A few days ago, he introduced Congress to an initiative to test the ground in a sphere that maintains millionaire salaries for men in soccer or boxing and shaky ones for women. “We need to lay the foundations for fair pay. Of course there are many interests in sports. Passing a law can be complicated, but we’re open to hearing why the same couldn’t be paid,” he says.
María José Alcalá during the interview at the Mexican Olympic Committee facilities. Nayeli Cruz
When María José Alcalá gave her all to jump in the pool, something happened to her that she remembers bitterly to this day. She was training at the facilities of the Mexican Social Security Institute when a company decided to give athletes $1,000 and there was another economic resource of $17 (350 pesos). Whoever gets the best scores in the 1992 Barcelona games wins the jackpot. “I entered and I was sixth, they didn’t give me the $1,000, they gave it to a colleague who was seventeenth. discrimination? Yes of course. They kept paying me 350 pesos,” he recalls. “Women mark a historic time in sport. We had to open up a gap, we want to stay on the podium. Women don’t just want to compete, they want to win,” Ditch said.
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