This week’s City Events conference in Lausanne was highlighted by an appearance from the Winter Universiade flame and rumblings of a logjam on the international calendar.
The flame for this year’s Winter Universiade in Trentino made a surprise appearance at the conference. It is currently on its way across Europe.
Crowded Calendar
Marc Vandenplas, FISU's Summer Universiade director, spoke of a 'traffic jam' on the international calendar. "It's hard to find candidate (cities) because of the profusion of new events."
Andre Guesbühler, secretary general of the International Gymnastics Federation, agreed. "We always have to fight to find good hosts and organizers." events, he said, can be small -- not everything has to be the Olympic Games.
"It’s hard to find candidate [cities]," he said, "because of the profusion of new events."
Frustration for Sport Climbing
Marco Scolaris, president of the International Sport Climbing Federation, spoke of his team's disappointment when sport climbing was passed over for inclusion in the Olympics for a fourth time.
Scolaris said he "sensed something had gone wrong in Lausanne" and that there was probably very little chance his sport would be added to the program.
He said his philosophy was "if we win, we keep climbing. If we lose, we keep climbing. It doesn't touch the value of our sport."
After the decision to keep wrestling on the program he wondered what he would tell stakeholders and members, who were not happy.
Scolaris said his small federation spent time and money it didn't have on its campaign.
"We'll go the direction of the future," he said. 'We don't know what kind of process we'll have. It could be completely different. It might be the same.
"We're looking for a signal from the IOC. If the process stays the same, a sport like ours has no chance to get in."
Scolaris said he was shocked by the secret vote and cited "a lack of respect in the process" of the decision, and that some of his colleagues thinking they would be better off "to stay in our world" than try again for the Olympics. While he remains optimistic, he said he believes things went too far and that something has to change in the future.
Written by Nick Devlin
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