Thirty-First Session 16Th-31St July 1991
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY THIRTY-FIRST SESSION 16th-31st JULY 1991 SPORT FOR ALL AND THE OLYMPIC PHILOSOPHY Published and edited jointly by the International Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Academy. ©1992 INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY REPORT OF THE THIRTY-FIRST SESSION 16th-31st JULY 1991 ANCIENT OLYMPIA IOC COMMISSION FOR THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY President Mr Nikos FILARETOS IOC Member in Greece Members Mr Fernando Ferreira Lima BELLO IOC Member in Portugal Mr Ivan DIBOS IOC Member in Peru Mrs Flor ISAVA-FONSECA IOC Member in Venezuela Major General Francis NYANGWESO IOC Member in Uganda Mr Wlodzimierz RECZEK IOC Member in Poland Mr German RIECKEHOFF IOC Honorary Member in Puerto Rico Mr Ching-Kuo WU IOC Member in Taiwan H.E. Mr Mohamed ZERGUINI IOC Member in Algeria Mr Anselmo LOPEZ Director of Olympic Solidarity M. Heinz KEMPA Representative of the I.F. Secretary General of the International Judo Federation Mr Abdul Muttaleb AHMAD Representative of the NOCs Mr Peter MONTGOMERY Representative of the Athletes' Commission Mr Conrado DURANTEZ Individual Member Mrs Nadia LEKARSKA Individual Member Professor Norbert MUELLER Individual Member 7 EPHORIA (BOARD OF TRUSTEES) OF THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY President Mr Nikos FILARETOS IOC Member in Greece 1st Vice-Président Mr Zacharias ALEXANDROU 1st Vice-President of the Hellenic Olympic Committee 2nd Vice-Président Mr Nikolaos PANTAZIS Member of the Hellenic Olympic Committee Members Mr Lambis NIKOLAOU IOC Member in Greece President of the Hellenic Olympic Committee Mr Dimitris DIATHESSOPOULOS Secretary General of the Hellenic Olympic Committee Mr George DOLIANITIS Mr Stavros LAGAS Mr Elias SPORIDIS Hon. Vice-President Mr Nikos YALOURIS 8 FOREWORD Motion is characteristic of man's entity and part of his nature; it gives him the inherent ability to «enact» and «express» in his environment, through harmonious and rhythmic movements, his psychosomatic self. As an integral part of his action, strength and expression, MAN can run, jump, play, dance, in especially important moments in his life and combine movement to psychosomatic functions in order to express joy or sadness, as a natural result of his double hypostasis, the coexistence of his body and soul. The consequence of this duality was the development of sport which represents a major conquest of the rational and social human being; enriched with human knowledge, it is an essential element of the social and institutional fabric of our contemporary society, in the pursuit for individual fulfilment. This conquest of man and the appreciation of its institutional value within the context of sport which is steadily evolving into a cultural and social phenomenon, has been and remains the product of interdisciplinary research, analysis and assessment of its effects, in an attempt to identify the proper balance between its long term objective, i.e. the moral elevation of man, and its negative action as it results from excessive and abusive practice. This functional relation has been an object of reflection for ancient and modern philosophers, in all the areas of social life, but even more so in sport, because of its recognition as an educational instrument and a means to build the character of the young; they have thus been able to prove that anything that does not contain measure or form should be rejected and warn against the untoward effects of excessive exercise, while advocating measured physical activity that can be pursued throughout life. As a result, the excesses that one witnesses today in competition and top performance sport have led specialists to see in Sport for All the «counterpart» of the modern Olympic Movement. This topical issue has been a major source of concern for sports cir- cles during these last few years, following the considerable appeal of the Sport of All movement on a world scale. The special theme of the 31st Session, «Sport for All and the Olympic Philosophy», gave the opportunity to lecturers and participants to examine 9 this question ¡n depth and show that these two activities, far from counteract- ing one another, work in constructive and creative association. It is, however, a fact that Sport for All has become a challenge for the Olympic Movement today. It is a living movement, which incorporates tradi- tional and modern sporting ideals, strives for harmony with the natural en- vironment and promotes personal well-being, recreation and development; it recognizes the fundamental right to physical exercise for all, rich and poor, women, youth, people with special needs and senior citizens, and contrib- utes, decisively, to individual serenity and self-esteem, mutual understand- ing among people and social peace. For this reason one should not be surprised at the organizations that have dealt with this question (i.e. the Council of Europe, the European Sports Conference, the Association of the National Olympic Committees of Europe, etc.), as well as the organizations which express this movement, IANOS (International Assembly of National Organizations of Sport), TAFISA (Trim and Fitness International Sport for All Association) and the IOC's Sports for All Commission, members of which attended the Session of the IOA as its guests and provided answers to many of the questions raised by the young participants during a special meeting with them. Just like every other year, the IOA's International Session for young participants was once again a major gathering on its list of scheduled events. Young people from 68 National Olympic Committees attended the proceedings. In addition, there were six young people who participated in the Session under a special IOA scholarship in memory of the late N. Nissiotis (President of the IOA), Otto Szymiczek (Dean of the IOA), and K. Paleólogos (Vice-Président of the IOA). The total number of participants, including the guests and lecturers, amounted to 222 persons. The President of the IOA, Nikos Filaretos, in his introductory speech on the Pnyx, outlined the problem, emphasizing its main aspects. These aspects were developed by 14 lecturers representing all five continents, who covered all the facets of the issue quite successfully. In addition to the International Session, two other very important sessions were held at the IOA this year. The 8th International Special Session for Members and Staff of Na- tional Olympic Committees and International Federations, 12th-18th May, was attended by 58 participants from 31 NOCs and four from the Interna- tional Federations. The special theme of the Session, «The Olympic Movement and some of its aspects» was brilliantly developed by the following distinguished lectur- ers: Nikos Filaretos (GRE), Ms Anne Beddow (GBR), Tom McCullough (AUS), Mrs Fanny Kakridi-Enz (GRE), Ivan Slavkov (BUL) and David Young (USA). The working groups concentrated their discussions on the following points: 1) The Olympic Movement today. Olympism: theory/reality 2) The contribution of the NOCs and IFs to the promotion and teach ing of Olympism 3) The impact of the modern Olympic Movement upon our society. 10 Perspectives of the future of the Olympic Games. The 6th International Seminar for Sports Journalists, 11th-16th June, was attended by 38 sports writers and lecturers from 27 countries. The special theme of this Seminar «The Mass Media and the Olympic Games» was presented by the following distinguished speakers: Pedro Palacios (ESP), Jacques Michel Tondre (FRA), Yannis Mouratidis (GRE), Themistocles Haralambidis (GRE) and Istvan Gyulai (HUN). In their final conclusions, the sports journalists recognized the impor- tance of the seminar and its contribution to the training of young sports editors on Olympic issues. For that reason they proposed that the IOC should recommend to the NOCs that special training courses be introduced for journalists; they also believe that the IOC should provide support to jour- nalists in the Third World so that they can provide sufficient coverage of the Olympic Games. It was generally felt that the lectures presented at both sessions were of a very high level; the same is true for the important conclusions which will be forwarded to the IOC. In conclusion we could say, at the end of another successful year of IOA activity, with 16 events between the beginning of May and the end of October, that the Academy is steadily continuing onward on its course of development and growth. Looking at the charts which are presented at the end of the Foreword, together with the 1991 events, readers will be able to follow the IOA's progress through the years, as regards the number of events and the total number of participants in its different sessions. The statistical tables confirm the ongoing efforts of the Academy's leadership aimed at improving its work; they clearly show that in the last few years the activities and the number of participants in the sessions have doubled. This fact has forced the Ephoria of the IOA to reduce the number of participants for each country from 5 to 4, since more and more National Olympic Committees are interested in attending our meetings. Dear readers, in June 1991, the International Olympic Academy cele- brated 30 years of creative work and significant contributions to the modern Olympic Movement. For us younger people, not quite so familiar with Olympic issues, it is not so easy to imagine the unfavourable conditions and the difficulties that had to be overcome in order to make this work possible. The old photo- graphs of life in the tents, the meeting area on the Cronion hill where the working sessions were held and the many romantic moments of the first years, provide us with a wonderful picture of the enthusiastic beginning of the IOA's activity. Today, 30 years after its foundation and after 30 years of contributing to the Olympic Movement, the IOA now has at its disposal a modern complex of facilities, built in unusually beautiful and green surroundings.