Claudia Bokel and Virginie Faivre announced as Ambassadors of WISE, the International Convention for Careers in Sports

With 22 women out of 89 speakers at the upcoming WISE – Work In Sports Exhibition Convention taking place next Wednesday, May 6 and Thursday, May 7 at Expo Beaulieu Lausanne, we are delighted to present two remarkable ambassadors that will be joining Colin Jackson : Claudia Bokel, Olympic Medallist in Fencing & Chair of the IOC Athletes Commission and Virginie Faivre, three time World Champion and Olympian in Freestyle skiing.

CLAUDIA BOKEL

"Many elite athletes will retire from sport at a relatively early age and most will need to start thinking in a career after sport well in advance. Pursuing an education while competing or just after having retired is therefore of utmost importance to an athlete’s life. By combining the skills learned as a sportsperson coupled with a solid education, an athlete can appropriately prepare for life after sport; you do not need to choose between the two of them", said Claudia Bokel.

The Fencing Olympic Medallist will be moderating an IOC Athletes Career Programme Workshop on May, 6 from 10:45 - 11:30 on the topic "Dreams to Results and IOC ACP Introduction" : motivational in nature, this workshop shows the link between the process of becoming an elite athlete to the process of transition and achieving your dreams in the labour market and closes with a session on goal setting.

VIRGINIE FAIVRE

Virginie Faivre will be involved in a panel focused on Olympic Medallists that are now successful leaders in the sports world. They are the perfect example of reconversion and application of skills developed during their athletic careers : their pathway, what has inspired them to achieve on and off the track/snow/water and how you can search for your own inspiration, the importance of finding balance and the preparation necessary in order to achieve a successful reconversion.

The panel will take place on Wednesday, May 6, 2015 - 11:30 - 12:45 on "Medallist Today, Leader Tomorrow: Athletes’ Transition and Retired Athletes" with the participation of the following speakers:

Faivre, Virginie – Triple World Champion & Olympian : Swiss Freestyle Skiing

Jackson, Colin – WISE Ambassador, Sports Media Professional, Athletics Legend

Kurt, Mike – Canoeing Athlete and Entrepreneur, I Believe in you

De Varona, Donna – Olympic Medallist in Swimming, IOC Women’s Commission & DAMAR Productions

Crooks, Charmaine – Olympic Medallist in Athletics & Owner NGU Consulting

Moderator : Francis Collings – Television/Radio Journalist, formerly with BBC Sport

Virginie has said : « It is really a great honour to be a WISE ambassador with such legendary athletes as Colin Jackson. In this role, I hope to be able to bring a fresh touch and a different approach as my vision might be a bit different coming from non-traditional sports. I play a "young" sport, which is federating step by step and is attractive to the younger generations ».

Giancarlo Sergi, WISE Director, added : "The example of Claudia’s and Virginie’s careers, both as an athlete and on the management side, illustrates outstanding talent and valuable skills. They are also an inspiration for other athletes in career transition and it was an evidence for us to include them in WISE Ambassadors’ Programme".

ABOUT CLAUDIA BOKEL

Claudia is an Olympic athlete in fencing. She was elected to serve on the IOC Athletes Commission in 2008 during the Summer Games in Beijing and is the Chair since 2012.

Her accomplishments in sport include, among others, a silver medal at the Olympic Games in 2004 (team) and a gold medal at the World Championships in 2001 (individual).

She is also a leader in the field of sports management, participating in many capacities : before she was elected Chair of the IOC Athletes Commission, she chaired the European Olympic Committee Athletes Commission, has been a member of the German Athletes Commission for many years and is currently chairing the IOC Athletes Career Programme Steering Committee. She has a Master of Science (2008) degree in chemistry from Radboud University, Nijmegen (The Netherlands) and has been working as a management consultant for several years.

@ClaudiaBokel

ABOUT VIRGINIE FAIVRE

Virginie is a Swiss freestyle skier. She most recently won gold in the halfpipe event at the 2015 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships which were held in Kreischberg, Austria. She also has gold medals in the same event from the 2009 and 2013 Championships. Born in Lausanne, she grew up in the beautiful area of Montreux, at the bottom of the Swiss Alps. Coming from a family of skiers, she began to ski at the age of two. She then raced for ten years in alpine skiing while finishing her schooling.

In 2002, taking a break in her studies and listening to her passion for travelling, she flew to Canada, and discovered the ski freestyle in Whistler. Pushed by friends there, she took part in her first freestyle competitions in North America. Since then she is a professional freeskier, living out of her passion and travelling around the world to ski.

Virginie is also being involved in many associations such as Gorilla, advocating for children to join sport; Cookie Sport Angels, mentoring young athletes, and the Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Games Bid, creating positive values for the next generation of young athletes.

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