Sara Rosario Vélez (born in Bayamon, Puerto Rico) is a Puerto Rican sports executive who has served as the President of the

Puerto Rico Olympic Committee The Puerto Rico Olympic Committee (COPUR, es, Comité Olímpico de Puerto Rico) is the National Olympic Committee for Puerto Rico. It oversees Olympic-sports in Puerto Rico, and selects the Olympic team which represents the island. It was founde ...

(COPUR) since 2012. Rosario is the first woman to hold the presidency of COPUR. Rosario has been involved in sports since 1987. She became a member of the

, or COPUR, in 1991. She served as the Chef de Mission for the Puerto Rican Olympic team at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. In November 2012,

David Bernier David Enrique "Quique" Bernier Rivera (; born January 21, 1977) is a Puerto Rican dentist and politician that has served in various roles in public service in Puerto Rico. Bernier first served as executive director of the Office of Youth ...

, the incumbent COPUR president since 2008, announced his resignation after he was appointed

Secretary of State of Puerto Rico The secretary of state of Puerto Rico ( es, Secretario de Estado de Puerto Rico) leads all efforts that promote the cultural, political, and economical relations between Puerto Rico and foreign countries, and other jurisdictions of the United S ...

by incoming

Governor-elect An ''officer-elect'' is a person who has been elected to a position but has not yet been installed. Notably, a president who has been elected but not yet installed would be referred to as a ''president-elect'' (e.g. president-elect of the Unit ...

Alejandro García Padilla Alejandro Javier García Padilla (; born August 3, 1971) is a Puerto Rican politician and attorney who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 2013 to 2017. Prior to this position, García Padilla held various roles in the political la ...

. COPUR elected Sara Rosario as its new president in early December 2012, three weeks after Bernier's announced his intention to step. Rosario became the first woman to lead COPUR since the committee's creation in 1948. In a press release issued shortly after her election, Rosario thanked the committee members, writing "“I'm pleased and very happy to be chosen as the first woman president of the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee. All my life I've worked for the Olympics. Being president of the Olympic Committee was never a goal of mine, but the chance came along and I took it." Rosario also stated that one of the main priorities of COPUR would be to win Puerto Rico's first ever gold medal at the forthcoming

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. Four years later, tennis player

Monica Puig Monica Puig Marchán, (born September 27, 1993) is a Puerto Rican former professional tennis player. She is the first Puerto Rican in history to win a gold medal at the Olympics while representing Puerto Rico, having done so in 2016 at the ...

became the first athlete to win an Olympic gold medal while representing Puerto Rico. Puig won her gold medal in

Tennis at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's Singles Puerto Rico's Monica Puig defeated Germany's Angelique Kerber in the final, 6–4, 4–6, 6–1 to win the gold medal in Women's Singles tennis at the 2016 Summer Olympics. It was Puerto Rico's first Olympic gold medal, and Puig became the fi ...

. Her academic education includes a B.A. degree in Business administration, with a concentration in accounting, of the Universidad Metropolitana de Puerto Rico. In May 2016, Rosario was elected to the

Association of National Olympic Committees The Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) is an international organization that affiliates the current 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Each year it gathers all its membe ...

' (ANOC) Executive Council as a representative of the

Pan American Sports Organization The Panam Sports (Formerly Pan American Sports Organization; es, link=no, Organización Deportiva Panamericana; pt, link=no, Organizacão Depórtiva Panamericana; french: Organisation Sportive PanAméricaine) is an international organization whi ...

(PASO). She replaced

Marcel Aubut Marcel Aubut, (born January 5, 1948) is a Canadian lawyer, former president of the Canadian Olympic Committee and former president and Chief Executive Officer of the Quebec Nordiques of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was a board member of ma ...

, who resigned from the Executive Council in November 2016 due to allegations of sexual harassment. Rosario's election to the 31-member ANOC Executive Council brought the number of woman on the council to nine.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosario, Sara Sportspeople from Bayamón, Puerto Rico Presidents of the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee Puerto Rican sports executives and administrators Puerto Rico at the Olympics Living people Year of birth missing (living people)