News: Sport Accord 2007  On April, 23-27 2007 the fifth international convention ‘Sport Accord’ took place. Alexey Kylasov, the secretary general of the Multisport Association of Russia, participated in the convention as a delegate from the International Bandy Federation (FIB).
It is worth mentioning that this time a number of representatives of Russia in international sport organizations took active part in the conference:
IOC members – Vitaly Smirnov, Shamil Tarpischev, Alexander Popov;
Vice-President of the European Olympic Committee – Alexander Kozlovsky;
FIAS – president David Rudman, FIAS executive director – Nikolay Lents;
FIB – president Boris Skrynnik, the Head of FIB Olympic development committee – Alexey Kylasov;
FIDE – president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, council of the president Berik Balgabaev;
FMJD – president Vladimir Ptitsyn;
IDBF – vice-president of the European Dragon Boat federation (EDBF), member of IDBF Council Viktor Kisselev.
Besides, the Director General of sport marketing agency “Sportima” Victoria Voskanyan participated in the sport marketing conference.
 All the major events of the conference were held in Beijing hotel “Shangri La”. The opening ceremony was organized in an expo centre, situated not far from the hotel, and was broadcasted on the national TV. Officials of Chinese government, the IOC President Jacques Rogge, the Head of ‘Sport Accord’ Convention Hein Verbruggen and the delegates were present at the ceremony.
In the bounds of “Sport Accord” International Conference annual meetings of the GAISF, ARISF, IWGA, IMGA, IOC Executive Committee were conducted.
On April, 25 there took place the presentation of candidate cities for the Olympics 2014. Russian
Delegation of Sochi-2014 was presided by Russian vice-Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov who was accompanied by the ROC President Leonid Tyagachyov, the Head of the Federal Agency for Physical Culture and Sport Vyacheslav Fetisov and members of the application committee Sochi – 2014. In fact, it was the last and most important presentation of the candidate cities to the IOC EXCO members, representatives of international sport federations and the IOC sponsors.
One of the main events of “Sport Accord” international conference was the discussion of the accepted order of recognition of sports and their inclusion in the Olympic program. The Head of the IOC sport commission Kelly Fairweather reported on the point. According to the regulations, passed by the IOC EXCO and which are going to be confirmed at the IOC session in Guatemala on July, 4-7 the first voting on changing the program will take place at the IOC session in 2009. There the program of the Olympic Games London- 2012 will be formed and the election of the IOC President will be conducted.
Speaking about the prospects of Russian national sports, it is noticeable that sambo has enough chances to be recognized by the IOC and bandy can be included in the program of the Olympics 2014.
 Hein Verbruggen (cycling, the Netherlands) was elected a new GAISF president, earlier he had been acting president. The vice-presidents are now Tamash Ajan (weightlifting, Hungary) who has preserved his position and the IWGA Ron Frőehlich (gymnastics, the USA) who used to be a member of the GAISF Council before. Thus, Olympic sports will be presented by Tamash Ajan, and non-Olympic – by Ron Frőehlich.
The representation of non-Olympic sports in the GAISF administration was extended. Jan Fransoo (korfball, the Netherlands), Antonio Espinos (karate, Spain), Paul Hoglund (ju-jitsu, Sweden) were elected to the GAISF Council. Summer Olympic sports will be presented in the GAISF Council by Denis Oswald (academic rowing, Switzerland), and winter ones – by Jean-Franco Casper (skiing, Switzerland). Cristine Domingues (France) remained Director General.
At the annual meeting of the GAISF several organizations became its members and, thus, acquired the world recognition by international sport federations:
- International dragon boat federation (IDBF);
- World Darts Federation (WDF);
- International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC);
The Commonwealth Games Federation also gained membership in the GAISF.
Besides, annual meetings of the ARISF and IWGA were conducted where the Mutual Understanding Agreement was ratified and signed by the ARISF President Jan Fransoo and the IWGA President Ron Frőehlich. The delegates of the both organizations consisting mainly of the same international federations approved of cooperation with national Olympic Committees in the sphere of support of sports recognized by the IOC and preparation for the World Games.
At the annual meetings of the ARISF and IWGA it was underlined that the Multisport Association of Russia played an important role in developing sport, strengthening international contacts and uniting non-Olympic sports for better cooperation and full integration with the Olympic movement.
IWGA (from the official website):
“Established in 2005, the Multisport Association of Russia unites interests of the federations recognized by the IOC, especially the ones participating in the World Games. At present it unites over 30 federations.
Among the functions of the MAR there is an intention to be represented in the administrative body of the ROC with the purpose to form the national delegation for the World Games. One of the vice-presidents of the MAR – Mikhail Stepanyants is a member of the ROC EXCO.
Another mission was defined after some time: the MAR prepares Russian national team for its participation in the First Mind Games which would be held in Beijing in 2008.”
ARISF (extract from the President Annual report for 2006):
“The ARISF president was invited by a number of Russian sport federations recognized by the IOC to discuss the ROC recognition of the national federations of sports recognized by the IOC.
Despite the difficult situation in Russia, there are some achievements, and a number of sport federation recognized by the IOC have gained recognition of the ROC due to the MAR.” |
Meeting of the Federation Council Chairman Sergei Mironov with the representatives of the Multisport Association of Russia
