Kirsty Coventry, from Zimbawue, was elected on March 20 as the new president of the International Olympic Committee. She will replace Thomas Bach, whose 12-year term ends on June 23.

Coventry becomes the first woman to preside over the committee. The Zimbabwean swimmer stated: “I am extremely honored and excited to have been elected President of the International Olympic Committee. I would like to sincerely thank my fellow members for their trust and support.”

She referred to the barriers overcome with her election, adding: “I am especially proud to be the first female IOC President, and also the first African. I hope this vote will inspire many people. Today, the barriers to entry have been broken, and I am fully aware of my responsibility as a role model.”

The Zimbabwean minister and new leader of global sport referred to sport as a power with the ability to “unite, inspire, and create opportunities for all,” values ​​to which she is committed.

She expressed her satisfaction after the announcement and requested the cooperation of all those involved with the Olympic movement to defend and promote its principles.

M.Pino

With information from purovinotinto and other media

(Reference image source: Hansjörg Keller on Unsplash)

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The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, revealed this Saturday that his organization is already exploring plans to create Olympic Games of electronic sports (e-sports, in English), in the context of the 141st Session of the IOC inaugurated in Bombay (India).

He noted that there are 3 billion people who use video games around the world. It even estimated that more than 500 million of them are specifically interested in esports, which includes virtual sports and sports simulations.

“What is even more relevant to us is that most of them are under 34 years old,” he noted. “I have asked our new E-sports Commission to study the creation of an electronic sports Olympic Games,” Bach stressed, following a “holistic” collaboration of the IOC with entities dedicated to e-sports that dates back to 2018.

According to Bach, they have chosen an approach that would allow them to “be active in the esports space while staying true to the values ​​that have guided us for over a century. With respect to esports, our values ​​are and will remain the red line that we will not cross.”

He stressed that his clear position is gaining respect in the esports community. “One of the main authors even adapted his popular game to fully align with our Olympic values, so that players would shoot at targets and not at people.”

The IOC wants to integrate youngsters with a new vision of sports

The IOC’s first commitment to this idea was the organization of the E-sports Forum in 2018 in Lausanne (Switzerland), followed by the creation of a Liaison Group to have a platform to interact with all interested parties. In 2021, the IOC developed the Olympic Virtual Series, the IOC’s pilot initiative in esports.

Following this Olympic Virtual Series, “we launched Olympic E-sports Week in Singapore earlier this year. In Singapore, we saw evidence that our holistic approach is working. We successfully brought together the Olympic and esports communities,” Bach said.

More than 130 players from around the world competed during that Olympic E-sports Week in 10 mixed category events. The players were cheered on by a room full of fans and everything was broadcast online. Including the qualifiers, the Olympic Esports Series attracted more than 500,000 unique participants and generated more than 6 million live action views across all its channels; 75 % of the views were people between 13 and 34 years old.

“It was a promising start; but just that, a start. It’s like in any sport; even after a promising start, the real race still lies ahead,” Bach said. “Our continued success depends on how we embrace the ever-accelerating development of digital technology and, in particular, artificial intelligence. This makes our Olympic Agenda 2020 imperative and even more urgent: ‘change or be changed’,” he warned.

For all this, he called for changing the mentality in the Olympic Movement: “The younger generation has a completely new way of thinking. They are living digital lives right now. We must not ignore their thinking if we do not want to endanger our own future. We must empower them to guide us with their young mentality.

Source: dpa

(Main reference image source: IOC, Europa Press / dpa)

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Berlin will host the Special Olympics World Games from June 17 to 25, in which around 7,000 athletes with intellectual and multiple disabilities will participate.

Founded by Eunice Kennedy-Shriver, sister of US President John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s, they were first held in 1968. The Special Olympics are the world’s largest sports movement for people with intellectual and multiple disabilities.

Today, more than 5 million athletes from at least 190 countries belong to the movement, whose goal is for people with intellectual disabilities to become more self-confident and participate in society through sport. The movement is recognized by the International Olympic Committee.

The Special Olympics are held every four years, alternating summer and winter. This year, they are welcomed for the first time by Germany. It is the largest multi-sports event held in the country since the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.

The Special Olympics allow the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to be put into practice and allow them to participate more in social life and, especially, in sport. Athletes with intellectual and multiple disabilities compete, while athletes with physical disabilities compete in the Paralympics.

The program includes a total of 26 sports disciplines. Some of them have been grouped in the facilities of the Berlin Fair and in the Olympic Park of the German capital. Badminton, basketball, bowls, apparatus gymnastics, weightlifting, rhythmic gymnastics, table tennis and volleyball will remain at the Fair. Participants in football, futsal, handball, hockey, athletics, skating and horse riding will compete in the Olympic Park. Aquatic competitions, swimming and diving, at the Europasportpark in Grünau, on the outskirts of Berlin.

The 3×3 basketball competition will take place near the Neptune Fountain, beach volleyball will be played on the BeachMitte beach, sailors will sail on Lake Wannsee and cyclists will run along the June 17 street. The SC Brandenburg club will host tennis, while bowling will be played at the Bowling World facilities, but without spectators.

The program includes the modality of unified sport, in which people with intellectual disabilities and people without it participate, which emerged in the 1980s. Through joint sport, participants with disabilities are supposed to gain more self-confidence and reduce their fears.

Another feature of the Special Olympics is that there is no medal table, although gold, silver, and bronze medals are awarded at each competition. It is that in the meeting there is no competitive pressure at the national level.

Spectators who want to attend the competitions have all the facilities. For seven sports, there is even free entry. In others, day tickets cost between six and eight euros (6.50 and 8.67 dollars). In addition, eleven television channels will report live for more than 400 hours.

Source: dpa

(Reference image source: Bryan Turner, Unsplash)

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The European University of Madrid (UE) has been recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as a Center for Olympic Studies and Research (CEIO), according to the academic institution in a statement.

Said recognition is for Carlos García Martí, leader of the project, an “honor” and an “opportunity to contribute to the promotion of Olympism and the values ​​of sport for a faculty and an institution with a strong social commitment and the advancement of research.”

Within the IOC, the Olympic Academy seeks to promote and publicize the Olympic legacy and spirit through educational, research and outreach activities around the world.

For the dean of the Faculty of Physical Activity and Sports Sciences and Physiotherapy, Simone Sato, the CEIO will promote actions aligned with the academic model and philosophy of the European University, through Olympic values ​​such as the promotion of ethics, friendship, respect and excellence, among the entire community. “Values ​​that we believe are the key to success for a solid, long and happy professional career,” she added.

Recognition as an Olympic Study and Research Center will allow the European University of Madrid to collaborate with one of the most representative institutions at a global level in the greatest social challenges of the future that are part of its academic model and Olympic commitment.

The center will develop, among others, dissemination actions such as conferences and seminars that will be an opportunity for students of all degrees to become familiar with Olympism and develop their concern for the opportunities of sport as a motor for sustainable development and social inclusion.

It will also be involved in research projects that help to face these challenges, offering CAFYD students the opportunity to participate in these projects and keep the university as a benchmark in social commitment and the faculty, currently among the 100 best in the world for the Shanghai ranking, at the forefront of knowledge and research.

Source: dpa

(Reference image source: European University, Europa Press / dpa)

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This Sunday, August 8, the capital of Japan said goodbye to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, after 17 uninterrupted days of sporting excitement. This edition of the tournament, which is usually held every four years, was the “strangest” Olympics in history, as many media described it.

On the one hand, fireworks lit up the Tokyo Olympic Stadium to usher in this final chapter. In the opening space called “A world of applause”, the excitement of the Olympic Games was relived with a video that reviews the 17 days of events and competitions.

“The Venezuelan athlete Yulimar Rojas is an outstanding, absolute star in this compilation,” said Tamara Gil, the correspondent for BBC Mundo in Tokyo, from the Japanese stadium.

With the hospitality that characterizes them, the Tokyoites said goodbye with an “arigato” in glittering letters, placed on both sides of the colossus. In a feeling of gratitude that without a doubt should also be a respite for the guests, Gil said.

Later, the Japanese national flag was carried onto the stage of the stadium by six flag bearers. According to the organizers, it was a moment for the Japanese hosts to “express to the entire world utmost gratitude” for the healthcare professionals, and other roles, who worked tirelessly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Resilience games come to an end and Tokyo prepares for Paralympics

In an almost empty stadium, the national anthem of Japan sounded, intoned by Takarazuka Revue, a musical theater company with more than 100 years of history.

Prince Fumihito, heir to the throne of Japan, was in the stands with Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The organizers of the event expressed their gratitude for the countless people who gave their support and effort or collaboration to materialize the closing ceremony.

For its part, Paris took over from Tokyo on Sunday and officially welcomed this new Olympic stage with a ceremony in the capital that served as an aperitif for the 2024 Games.

Tokyo is now preparing to kick off the World Paralympic Games on August 24, 2021.

#Tokio2020 ¡Postales de la Ceremonia de Clausura de los Juegos Olímpicos Tokio 2020! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/o1F4etmPMh

— Comité Olímpico ARG (@PrensaCOA) August 8, 2021

Source: elsumario

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