The 2012 SportAccord Convention took place in beautiful Quebec City, Canada between 20th and 25th May. Held at the Quebec Convention centre, this prestigious event of world sport was organised on 3 floors with many meeting rooms, exhibition areas and stalls for sponsors, world sport organisations, and various different countries and cities.
There were almost 1600 registered delegates including representatives of International Sports Federations, officers of SportAccord, WADA and FISU, representatives of potential host cities, Sports Ministry officials and media representatives. FISav President, Dr. Julie Gabriel, and Secretary General, Janez Obreza attended the Convention on the behalf of FISav.
At the Opening Ceremony of the Convention, interesting speeches were given by long-standing SportAccord President, Mr Hein Verbruggen, and the President of the International Olympic Committee, Mr Jacques Rogge.
During our stay in Quebec we took part in several official meetings. One was a meeting of the International Federations, not yet recognised by the IOC. For the last year, FISav President, Julie Gabriel has been a member of a commission responsible for organising an official group for these diverse Federations. SportAccord President, Hein Verbruggen attended the meeting to give the official approval of SportAccord for this important development, and to approve the name: Alliance of Independent Members of SportAccord (AIMS), the mission statement and the objectives of the group. Photo: Mr Orlando, Mr Lund, Mr Verbruggen and Dr Gabriel.
Another important meeting was the plenary session for the International Federations involved in the 2013 SportAccord World Combat Games in St.Petersburg (15 combat sports federations are included, Olympic and non-Olympic, including Savate).
We also networked and held meetings with key people from other Federations and umbrella organisations of IFs including:
- Jan Fransoo, Director of the Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF)
- Joachim Gossow and Ron Froehlich from International World Games Association (IWGA), equivalent to Olympic Games for non-Olympic sports.
- Laurent Briel from the International University Sports Federation (FISU)
- Françoise Dagouret and Stephanie Mills from SportAccord Doping Free Unit;
- Laetitia Zumbrunnen from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) European Regional Office
- Dr. Olga E.Pazyna from Russian Union of Martial Arts (RUMA) and members of the organising committe for the 2013 SportAccord Games.
- Stephan Fox from the International Federation of Muaythai Amateur (IFMA)
- Marsh, our insurance company, to update our agreement with them.
Julie Gabriel also met with representatives of the Sports Ministries of several countries, and was offered co-operation for the introduction of Savate in Bahrain and Dubai. Janez Obreza had constructive meetings with Amar Addadi, president of International Committee of the Mediterranean Games (CIJM), Kei Izawa from International Aikido Federation and with Sébastien Gillot and Patricia Steullet from the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA).
On the final day we attended the SportAccord General Assembly, the most important annual meeting of sports representatives in the world. During the meeting, the Assembly accepted the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) and International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) as new members. This brings the number of SportAccord members (both Olympic and non-Olympic) up to 107. Julie Gabriel, along with Mike Haslam (Dragonboat), Sally Baird (Sled-dog) and Renato Orlando (Fistball) were thanked by the SportAccord Council member, Espen Lund, for their work on the AIMS commission.
We are pleased to conclude that the Convention was a great success in terms of further strengthening the position of Savate and FISav within SportAccord and for establishing new partnerships with key people and sports organisations from around the world.
See http://www.sportaccord.com/en/news/ for SportAccord News
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