The president of the Haitian Olympic Committee (COH) lays bare the situation of Haiti’s judo and athletics federations.
The president of the Haitian Olympic Committee (COH) exposes the situation of Haiti’s judo and athletics federations. According to his version of events, the authorities of the two sports organizations are not respecting the statutes of their federations. By acting this way, they have voluntarily violated these statutes, according to Dr. Hans Larsen.
It all started with a comparison of Haiti’s participation in the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games, where the country won five medals: one gold, one silver, and three bronze. On this topic, the COH’s key man made the following remarks.“You have to go back in time to find a performance by Haiti at the Central American and Caribbean Games that matches that of 2026. The credit,” he clarified, “does not belong to the Haitian Olympic Committee. Its main role is to bring qualified athletes to these games. It is up to the federations to handle the qualification of athletes according to the pre-established principles, which are: the Haitian Constitution, the Olympic Charter, and the statutes of the Haitian Olympic Committee. As for the federations, the HOC follows the rules of the Olympic Charter, the statutes of the international federation, and ensures strict compliance with the statutes of the national federation,” Dr. Hans Larsen said before taking a little jab at the judo and athletics leaders.”All entities need to come to an agreement for the well-being of the athletes and not to prevent them from moving forward. We have no right to block athletes who meet the established standards,” he continued, while noting that he was in the Dominican Republic to work and participate in the games, wearing many hats.
For Dr. Larsen: “There’s no falling out between the National Olympic Committee, judo, and athletics. I’m just clarifying things without passion, without hesitation, and without any personal interest,” he said before shedding light on the situation in athletics.
“At the Youth Games in Cali, Colombia, in 2021, it was a former Secretary General of the COH who was president of the Haitian Athletics Federation (Alain Jean-Pierre),” he recalled, without naming anyone. “The current president was the treasurer, and the current Secretary General simply keeps his position. There were athletes who were supposed to come, and they had asked for $6,000. I was against that approach. During a conference call, the executive committee suggested that I give the money. We had disbursed the requested amount, and the athletes did not show up for the games. It turns out one of them wanted to come, but the current president and the current Secretary General of the athletics federation strongly opposed it and even threatened him,” Dr. Hans Larsen hinted.“After the games, at the general assembly, I presented the case before the highest body of the COH. The members of the assembly called such behavior serious. I had to play the recordings of the two athletics authorities (two to three times) and they decided to ban the Haitian Athletics Federation for life and/or suspend it for nine years,” he said. “In the meantime, the Haitian Athletics Federation is holding elections to choose a new executive committee. It turns out that three former members suspended by the COH general assembly ran in these elections and were elected as president, secretary-general, and treasurer. By this arbitrary act, they publicly slapped the highest sports authority of the Olympic family,” Dr. Larsen said.”Before the end of the term of the elected executive committee, there was a financial scandal within the Haitian Athletics Federation. The first two members of the current athletics executive committee forced the then-president to resign under the threat of ruining him internationally. They got their way since the former president did resign. At the general assembly, these gentlemen, who had been under sanctions, tried to impose themselves on members of other federations,” denounces the president of the COH, who took the opportunity to make other accusations against the athletics leaders.
“They didn’t send any athletes to the Pan American Games. Since they couldn’t stop the athletes from participating in the Olympic Games, athletics was represented. Over there, we had a Zoom meeting, as I said, the executive committee of the COH hadn’t imposed any sanctions; it was the general assembly that sanctioned athletics. I had advised them to write to the federations forming the general assembly so that we could have an extraordinary general assembly meeting as soon as possible. They didn’t do it. For the NACAC Games, they tried to get some money, but to no avail. The same goes for the Santo Domingo 2026 Games—no athletics athletes, perhaps at the request of the federation, showed up. In short, the COH (which had registered the athletes and the guests) isn’t wrong about athletics not participating in the Central American and Caribbean Games,” defended Dr. Hans Larsen.What about the situation with judo?
“Judo was in crisis. The COH, at the request of the International Judo Federation, tried in vain to solve the problem, even though we paid a lawyer to revise the statutes of this federation. In principle, these statutes should be voted on by 50 clubs. In the meantime, these clubs, divided on many issues, took over ten months to come to an agreement,” said Dr. Larsen, who also referred to the federation’s elections.”At the elections, there was only one candidate, Mr. Widmaïer Chéry, elected by a majority of voters. In the judo federation’s statutes, it is written in black and white that the establishment of the national team is done through organizing the regional and national championships, and the champion athletes become part of the national team. At the end of the first championship, two of the champions received an Olympic scholarship to the great dismay of the federation leaders, who had boycotted these two Olympic scholarship holders. They now claim to defend these two athletes,” he said, accusing judo of violating its statutes.”For several years, the federation hasn’t organized any championships. In fact, there was no national selection for this reason. In the meantime, the president decides on his own, whenever and however he wants, to send the athlete (sometimes his son and in the junior category, the Deprez family), according to his liking, to the qualifiers to represent the country. By doing this, he neglects the athletes competing in Haiti. The president also doesn’t respect the judo statutes. In this case, the COH absolutely cannot tolerate and/or accept such behavior, as it’s a serious violation of the federation’s statutes,” says Dr. Hans Larsen loudly before continuing to sharply criticize judo.
“At international games, since I took over as head of the COH, judo, except for the 2023 games, hasn’t won any victories. Moreover, thirty-eight out of fifty clubs wrote asking for elections within the Haitian Judo Federation. They organized, during the 2024 Olympic Games, a so-called election that was contested by the majority of the clubs. If they persist, they have to accept the consequences that come with it,” the head of the COH clearly stated.How to solve the judo problem?
“The leaders should get their notebooks in order, meaning they need to revise the statutes and organize free and transparent elections, without forgetting to hold a national championship to create a proper national judo team. Once done, the two best athletes could get a continental scholarship, if not an Olympic one,” he said.
In conclusion, Dr. Hans Larsen criticized the fact that the president and the secretary-general of the Haitian Judo Federation live abroad and do not take care of the well-being of athletes living in Haiti.
