International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and 8th United Nations Secretary-General H.E. Ban Ki-moon were influential speakers that took part in the fully virtual International Federation (IF) Forum 2021.
The virtual launch event took place on May 25, 2021. IOC President Thomas Bach provided an update on preparations for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, with Keynote Addresses by Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and then H.E. Ban Ki-moon, who is also the Chair of the IOC Ethics Commission.
The opening address was by Dr Raffaele Chiulli, President of SportAccord and the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF). The event, which brought together more than 300 leaders from over 125 international sports federations, explored the theme of ‘Lessons We Are Learning from a Global Crisis and How Sport and Society Can Emerge Stronger’.
The invitation-only IF Forum 2021 was staged virtually via the Olympic Capital of Lausanne in Switzerland. Speakers included representatives of the IOC, umbrella sports associations and individual international federations, as well as sports industry executives.
Various topics were covered, such as:
- ‘Moving Forward, Pivoting and the Lessons We Are Learning’,
- ‘A Return to Competition and Lessons from the Bubble’,
- ‘Athlete Mental Health’,
- ‘Commercial Approaches for IFs in the New Normal’ and
- ‘The Virtual Experience and its Home within IFs’.
SportAccord’s Dr Raffaele Chiulli said “This year’s IF Forum has been designed to give International Federations across the world timely insights so they can emerge from the challenges of the past year-and-a-half with more knowledge and the necessary tools to recover and grow in the coming months.
“We have an outstanding line-up of speakers and the SportAccord 2021 Virtual Launch Celebration will also provide an ideal opportunity to network with international federations.”
Following the closing remarks at the IF Forum, the Virtual Launch Celebration in May provided a glimpse of what to expect at the SportAccord World Sport & Business Summit 2021. This will be held in Ekaterinburg, Russia, on November 7-12, 2021.
Registration is open for SportAccord 2021 in Ekaterinburg, the 19th edition of SportAccord’s flagship annual event.
