LAUSANNE – On Monday, 7 March the FISU President Oleg Matytsin and Secretary General/CEO Eric Saintrond visited the IOC headquarters in Lausanne for meeting the IOC President Thomas Bach as well as the Head of sport partnerships and co-ordination Ms. Jenny Mann.
During the meeting, the FISU President informed Mr. Bach about the decisions taken during the FISU Executive Committee meeting held last weekend in Brussels, namely regarding the attribution of the 2021 Winter Universiade to Lucerne (Switzerland), the development of educational programme for young sports leaders and volunteers, the development of a new competition format involving university teams instead of national teams and finally the decision of reducing the age of the athletes participating in FISU events from 28 to 25 y.o. maximum.
The FISU President also underlined the importance of legacy of the countries and cities that had organized the Olympic Games, which represent a very good educational platform for increasing the know-how of the managers of sports events.
President Matytsin also explained the new procedure of attribution of Summer and Winter Universiade which is completely in line with the Agenda-2020 of the IOC.
Finally, the FISU President presented an official invitation to Mr. Bach to attend the 28th Winter Universiade that will be held from 29 January to 8 February 2017 in Almaty (KAZ). Mr. Bach was also invited by FISU to attend the ceremony of laying of the first stone of the future FISU headquarters SYNATHLON on the Campus of Lausanne on 20 April 2016.
Forward to the adoption by UNESCO of the International Day of University Sports, the President Bach invited FISU to get more involved in the celebration of the United Nations’ International Day of Sport for Development and Peace which is yearly held on 6 April.
In conclusion, the President Bach congratulated FISU for its very extended and diverse programme and confirmed the interest of the IOC in the FISU activities underlining the importance of the university sports for forming the future leaders of the society. President Bach also expressed the will to increase the mutual cooperation between the IOC and FISU in the future.