Kazan, 3 July 2017: More than 100 volunteers from 91 countries gathered today
as FISU President Oleg Matytsin opened the first FISU Volunteer Leaders
Academy, joined by Olympic champion figure skater Alexey Yagudin and leader
of the Republic of Tatarstan, President Rustam Minnikhanov.
President Matytsin praised the role of volunteers in sport and hoped that
everyone in attendance would benefit from the inaugural event.
"Russia continues to demonstrate its openness and commitment to the ideals of
Olympism. I am confident that the participants here will feel this atmosphere and
take a real vision of this back to their countries," President Matytsin said.
Yagudin, a four-time world champion who won gold at the 2002 Olympic Winter
Games in Salt Lake City, said that volunteers were critical in ensuring major
events ran smoothly.
"Without volunteers, sport in the world would not be so successful," Yagudin
said. "I am happy to see a big delegation of Russians here, some of whom will go
to Taipei for the 2017 Summer Universiade later this year.
"Travels like that will be so useful for future leaders of the volunteer sector. It is
an invaluable experience, which they can then utilise when we host the 2019
Universiade in Russia."
The main goals of the forum are to create opportunities for studying and sharing
best practice related to volunteer projects and programs for major international
events, as well as securing an effective communication platform for the
development of student volunteer communities. Experts are at the forum
representing FISU, WADA, IOC and UNESCO, as well as participants from
organising committees for future international sporting events.
"I want to say thank you to more than 20 thousand volunteers; participants of
Summer Universiade in 2013, the FINA World Aquatics Championships in 2015
and the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2017," President Minnikhanov said.
"Many of these volunteers will also help us in organizing FIFA World Cup in 2018
as well as the WorldSkills competition in 2019. Without such enterprising and
creative young people, it is probably impossible to hold major international
events.
"But in order to organise volunteer activities we need some educational
programs. In my opinion, sport volunteering in Russia was born in Kazan and we
are so happy that the first FISU Volunteer Leaders Academy is here in Kazan."
The FISU Volunteer Leaders Academy-2017 international forum will take place
in Kazan, hosted by the Volga State Academy of Sport and Tourism until July 8.
For more information:
Contact: Anna Manuelian
Email: anna@jtassocs.com
Telephone: +41 (0) 78 630 6127
The International University Sports Federation – FISU
Founded in 1949, FISU stands for Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire
(International University Sports Federation). FISU was formed within university
institutions in order to promote sports values and encourage sports practice in
harmony with and complementary to the university spirit. Promoting sports
values means encouraging friendship, fraternity, fair-play, perseverance, integrity
and cooperation amongst students, who one day may have responsibilities and
even key positions in politics, the economy, culture and industry.
Open to student-athletes aged between 17 and 25 (for events in 2016 and 2017
the upper age is still 28), FISU’s events consist of Summer and Winter
Universiades and the World University Championships. Universiades are
multisport events staged in odd-numbered years, while the World University
Championships are single-sport events, staged in even-numbered years. Besides
its sporting events, FISU stages educational events, such as the FISU Forum on
University Sport, the FISU World Conference on Development through Sport, the
FISU World Conference on Innovation - Education - Sport, the FISU Sport
Education Summit and the FISU Seminars.
With FISU’s motto being "Excellence in Mind and Body", all events include
educational and cultural aspects, bringing together sport and academia from all
over the world to celebrate in a true spirit of friendship and sportsmanship. FISU
cooperates in developing its events and programmes with all major international
sports and educational organisations. As major outcomes of those collaborations,
in 2015, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO) proclaimed the International Day of University Sport to be celebrated
on 20 September, and the Anti-Doping Textbook and teaching materials were
developed with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
FISU is composed of 170 Member Associations (National University Sports
Federations). The FISU General Assembly elects the members of the FISU
Executive Committee, its board of directors. Fourteen permanent committees
advise the Executive Committee in their specialised areas. For the daily
administration of FISU, the FISU Executive Committee relies on the Secretary
General, who is assisted by the FISU staff. FISU’s headquarters are in Lausanne,
Switzerland.
For more information, please contact the FISU Media Dept. at media@fisu.net or
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