Opening Ceremony and First Day of the FISU Conference
August 9th, 2007
The FISU Conference opened this morning at the Thammasat University, Rangsit Campus, in Bangkok. We may already confirm that it is a great success! Indeed, more than 400 participants coming from 30 countries were registered for this first day. The morning session began with the welcoming speeches of the officials. First of all, Mr. Vanchai Sirichana, the President of the Conference OC was very pleased to see so many participants and speakers coming from all over the world.
The Minister of Education of Thailand and Bangkok Universiade OC President, Mr Wichit Srisa-an, then took the floor. He underlined the educational role of "sport for all" in a country like Thailand. He also stressed the fact that this Conference is a real chance for all the participants to brainstorm and to share experiences about university sport at a world level. FISU President Mr. George E Killian underlined the role of the educational events organised by FISU which are growing constantly. Finally, the CESU President, Mr. Claude Louis Gallien made a very original opening speech linking University sport with four major concepts: health, truth, freedom and beauty. After all those speeches the Conference could start with the address of Prof. Kostas Georgiadis with the topic: "Sport as a battle of field for peace".
This time, the FISU conference that traditionally takes place during the Universiade will consider the subject: " University Sports: sport creates man; man develops nationhood ". This academic event, which is open to all accredited participants, will take place from today to 12 August at Thammasat University on the Rangsit Campus. This university is the one hosting the Athletes' Village and 8 sports disciplines at this Universiade. So, more than ever, the FISU Conference, one of the few international conferences to take a closer look exclusively at University sports every other year, will be at the heart of the Universiade. This proximity will enable a still larger number of participants to listen to the 15 main conferences and 179 speakers that have been retained by the selection committee. A poster session is also included in the programme.
In order to consider all aspects of the main theme, 5 sub-themes will be on the Conference agenda: the relations between sports and socialization, sports and environmental questions, sports and globalization, global perspectives of sciences of sports and, finally, a healthy lifestyle and life quality. The main speakers come from five continents. Europe is represented by Kostas Georgiadis (Greece) and Gaston Beunen (Belgium). America by Alan Graefe, David K. Stotlar(USA), Bradley J. Cardinal (USA), Karl Neezer (USA) and Karen E. Danylchuk (CAN). Sudanese Shamsel Din Zeinal Abdin will represent Africa. As is to be expected, Asia is represented by a number of speakers including Kasem Nakornkhet, Vallop suwande, Nisare Sriboon and Naruepon Vongjaturapat from Thailand, Zhong Bingshu from China, a representative of Chinese Taipei, Joe Kao, two Japanese: Munehiko Harada and Kaoru Kitagawa and finally a Korean, Yi Kyung Ok.
In addition to the scientific aspect of the conference, its special asset is to allow an exchange between representatives of the academic world who are the speakers, and members of the FISU family during a multisport event of international scope. This was the challenge that FISU took up: trying insofar as possible to maintain great proximity between the academic world and the athletes and technicians. As usual, the members of the CESU who often have come from the academic world themselves, working with the Organizing Committee, will see to the smooth progress of this event – FISU’s oldest educational event, since the first Conference dates back to 1960.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
