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Liston (Lin) D. Bochette III, born June 16, 1957, is an athlete, artist and civic leader. He participated in several Olympic Games as an athlete and administrator. [1]
Bochette studied at The University of Florida, Florida State University, Inter American University, the University of Puerto Rico, Pacific Western University, and was accepted at Stanford University. He collected a Bachelor's BFA degree in Fine Arts; a Master's degree MA in humanities; studied an ED abd in Education and completed a PhD in Philosophy.[ citation needed ] American University awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Humanity. He has taught at Inter American University in the general field of communication and continues in education as a visiting professor at Tiffin University's College of Sports Management and on the distance faculty for the United States Sports Academy. In 1983 he was awarded a Citation of Merit by the Senate of Puerto Rico and in 2022 appointed as a United Nations Ambassador for Peace.
Bochette was a Junior All American, attended the University of Florida on a Track and Field Scholarship offered to him by Olympic Coach Jimmy Carnes and was later inducted into the university's Hall of Fame. [2] He competed internationally in the decathlon for the Puerto Rico Track and Field Team and won a gold medal at various levels including the 1982 Central American and Caribbean Games [3] In addition Bochette competed internationally at the pro-am level in Modern Pentathlon. He cofounded the Fort Myers Track Club during his youth in the 1970s. Beginning in the 1980s, he worked closely with many International Olympic Committee Members, in developing programs and projects for the Olympic Family. He participated, in various capacities, in the Summer and Winter Olympic Games—as an advocate for the Olympic Movement; a qualified athlete Track and Field in 1984, as an official in 1988; and as an accredited bobsleigh athlete for Puerto Rico in 1992, 1994, 1998 and 2002. [1] In 2002–2006, he served on the International Olympic Committee's elite Athletes Commission in Switzerland. In 1999 he was unanimously elected as Secretary General of the World Olympian Association and served two consecutive terms. International Olympic Committee. [3] In this position he led a highly successful global campaign to unite 100,000 alumni athletes in 200 nations under the Olympic banner in order to promote Olympic values in their countries.[ citation needed ] He founded the Pan American Olympians Association in 2006 to improve fellowship among the Olympians in the hemisphere and the International Cultural Consortium in 1996 for enhancing the union between sport and cultural as an educational instrument. He was named as one of the greatest Athletes of the century in Southwest Florida by the Gannett News Press.
Bochette is the founding President of the Puerto Rico National Olympians Association and assisted over one hundred countries develop their Olympians Associations. World Olympians Association He founded the Puerto Rico national federations for Badminton, Canoe and Kayak, and Modern Pentathlon. Bochette has been an executive officer of the University of Florida Track and Field Alumni Association (UFTFAA). [4] Bochette also serves on the UIPM Pierre De Coubertin Committee for the promotion of Olympism and its core values.
Bochette is best known for his drawings and paintings but also works in sculpture, stained glass, film, dance, poetry, and literature. At the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Cultural Festival he was awarded a gold medal for painting and drawing. In 1996 he was named the International Sports Artist of the Year by the United States Sports Academy and later served on the institution's Board of Trustees. He was responsible for designing branding logos at the University of Florida and served as the inaugural Director of the Olympic Sports Museum in Puerto Rico. Together with four-time Olympic Gold medalist Al Oerter he cofounded the Art of the Olympians Museum. Bochette is a consulting partner for Arnold Entertainment and film productions. He has been a key note speaker at the International Children's Art Olympiad held in Washington DC. He holds workshops for the creative development of creativity in children and adults around the world. He has exhibited in Osaka, Monte Carlo, Athens, New York, and other major cultural capitals. His art is in a number of private collections worldwide. He was commissioned by the University of Indiana to create and install a series of campus monuments. Bochette was presented a distinguished service award for culture in the Czech Republic (2023) and inducted in the Fédération Internationale Cinéma Télévision Sportifs Hall of Fame (2024). He also serves on the Santo Domingo Film Festival Board.
Bochette assisted in setting up the Al Oerter Center for Excellence and serves on the Board of the Uncommon Friends Foundation (Thomas Edison and Henry Ford et al.). [5] He has Chaired the Olympian Foundation since its inception. Bochette has worked on camera broadcast with major networks including Telemundo as well as appearing on CBS, NBC, and CNN. He has addressed meetings at the United Nations as well as being a delegate to the White House on Olympic issues. Bochette has served as an appointed and an elected official in government with distinction as Councilman and Mayor Pro-Tem for the City of Fort Myers, Florida. He has served on the Florida League of Cities State Finance and Economic Development Committees. He is a fiscal conservative who fully supports the arts, education, and the environment. He created the Environmental Committee, and also liaisons with the Historical Preservation, Art, Beautification, and Bike / Pedestrian Committees. He serves on the Lee County Tourism Council and is a speaker on tourism development for the State of Florida. In addition has lectured around the world in locations such as Cairo, St. Petersburg, Tokyo, London.
Sports in Puerto Rico can be traced from the ceremonial competitions amongst the pre-Columbian Native Americans of the Arawak (Taíno) tribes who inhabited the island to the modern era in which sports activities consist of an organized physical activity or skill carried out with a recreational purpose for competition. One of the sports which the Taíno's played was a ball game called "Batey". The "Batey" was played in U-shaped fields two teams; however, unlike the ball games of the modern era, the winners were treated like heroes and the losers were sacrificed.
Alfred Oerter Jr. was an American athlete and a four-time Olympic Champion in the discus throw. He was the first athlete to win a gold medal in the same individual event in four consecutive Olympic Games. Oerter is an inductee of the IAAF Hall of Fame.
Angelita Lind Soliveras a.k.a. "The Angel of Puerto Rico" is a Puerto Rican track and field athlete.
Percy Morris Beard was an American college and international track and field athlete who specialized in the high hurdles event, and won an Olympic silver medal. Beard later became a nationally prominent college track and field coach at the University of Florida.
Jesús David "Jesse" Vassallo Anadón is a former competition swimmer and world record-holder in the 200 and 400 individual medley, who participated in the 1984 Summer Olympics for the United States. In 1997, he became the first Puerto Rican to be inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. He was somewhat unique in the scale of his achievements as a swimmer, and in a tribute to his World Records in 1978 was voted Swimming World Magazine's "Male Swimmer of the Year". From 2004 to 2009, he served as the president of the Puerto Rican National Swimming Federation.
Charmaine Crooks, is a Canadian businesswoman, sports executive, and retired sprinter and middle-distance runner.
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Craig Russell Beardsley is an American former competition swimmer who was a world record-holder in the 200-meter butterfly for three years in the early 1980s. Although he qualified as a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Team, Beardsley could not compete in the Olympics because of the U.S. boycott of the Moscow Summer Olympic Games.
Barry John King was a British Olympic decathlete who was later an author, corporate director, corporate board member and specialist in Olympic marketing and sports development.
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James Jerome Carnes was an American track and field athlete, coach and administrator. A successful coach at the high school, college and international levels, Carnes compiled a 161–11 career dual meet record, highlighted by four college conference championships and six state high school championships. He was the head coach of the U.S. Olympic track & field team and the Florida Gators track and field team, the founder of the Florida Track Club, and a member of the U.S. Track & Field Hall of Fame.
Julio Enrique Monagas was a Puerto Rican sports editor and administrator considered the father of Olympic sports in Puerto Rico. Through his efforts, Puerto Rico was admitted into the Olympic Games in 1948. Monagas was also the first director Puerto Rico's Public Recreation and Parks Commission, and the first president of the Central American and Caribbean Sports Organization.
Carlos de Anda Dominguez was a Mexican accomplished sprinter who competed internationally, eventually reaching the 1932 Summer Olympics, and qualifying for the 1936 Summer Olympics.
David Freeman is a Puerto Rican middle distance runner. He was born in Miami,Florida USA and attended Hialeah High School in Hialeah, Florida. David started running Track & Field as a sophomore in high school. David was third in state championship in 800 meters as sophomore, second during his junior year and he won the state championship in the 800 meters during his senior year of high school (2000).
Michael "Mike" Gonzales is a former United States decathlete.
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Art of the Olympians (AOTO) is an organization and program of Olympian and Paralympian artists that promotes the Olympic ideals of values, integrity, character, respect, honor, and work ethic through exhibitions and educational programs. It puts on traveling exhibitions, runs workshops, organizes talks at schools, to show and discuss the connection between sport, art, and the Olympics. AOTO previously operated a museum.
Douglas Rosado, in New York, NY was a Track and Field athlete, twice Bobsleigh Olympic athlete ; He competed at the 1992 Winter Olympics and the 1994 Winter Olympics. He was also a U.S. Navy carrier jet Aviator and attorney.
