Bio

Ivar Sisniega was born on May 29, 1958, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, United States. He studied Economics at Stanford University and Business Administration at the University of Arizona where he graduated Summa Cum Laude.

During this time, Ivar competed in three Olympic Games for Mexico as a modern pentathlete. He was the flag bearer for Mexico at the Los Angeles 1984 Games where he earned two Olympic diplomas for his seventh place individual finish and leading Mexico to fifth in the team score. He also broke the Olympic and World Records in the 300-meter swim at the Moscow 1980 Summer Games. He has also represented Mexico in international competitions in swimming, fencing and triathlon.

In his career as a sports manager, Ivar Sisniega was the Sports Minister of Mexico under President Ernesto Zedillo from 1994 to 2000, where he created the National Youth Olympics and the high-performance athlete support program (CIMA) that took Mexico from winning one or two Olympic medals to six in Sydney 2000. From 2002 to 2006, he was the Executive President of the Chivas de Guadalajara Football Club and from there he went on to become the Chief of Operations and Sports for the Guadalajara 2011 Pan American Games.

He was the First Vice President of the Pan American Sports Organization from 2012 to 2016 and the President of the Pan American Modern Pentathlon Confederation from 1995 to 2017 while also serving as the President of the Association of Pan American Sports Confederations (ACODEPA). He was also Vice President of the Mexican Olympic Committee from 2005 to 2012.

In April 2017, after the election of Neven Ilic as President of Panam Sports, Ivar Sisniega was appointed as Secretary General.