AIPS Congress Budapest 2020
Beyond their own development, sport federations assume their social responsibilities
Head of FINA Communications Department Pedro Adrega speaking during the 83rd AIPS Congress in Budapest. (Photo by Carlo Pozzoni/AIPS Media)
BUDAPEST, February 4, 2020 - As one of the biggest international gatherings of sports journalists from over 100 countries, the AIPS Congress prides itself on attracting sports administrators and decision makers across different international sports federations (Olympic and non-Olympic) to deliver presentations on their activities and, in some cases, answer crucial questions about the sport they govern.
At the 83rd AIPS Congress in Budapest, FINA head of communications department Pedro Adrega shared some facts and figures to highlight some innovations that have aided the development of swimming.
“FINA is organizing the Champions Swim Series event in order to provide an additional opportunity for our stars to gather in a very competitive field. The series incorporate many innovations. It is an invitation only event, with direct finals of four swimmers only, very attractive prize money,” Adrega explained.
“For the two legs held in Shenzhen and Beijing in January 2020 in China, over 1.8 million of US$ was paid; original sport presentation and entertainment show for the spectator inside,” according to him.
Adrega also highlighted the increase in the number of medals at FINA. “49 medals in aquatics, 35 finals in swimming, in diving 8, 2 in artistic swimming, 2 in water polo and 2 in marathon swimming to be competed for by a total of 1410 athletes at the Tokyo Games. This improvement in the number of medals - we had 46 at Rio 2016 - is due to the increase in the swimming programme. Three new races are now on the programme: men's 800m free, women's 1500m free and mixed 4x100m medley relay,” he stated.
FINA is not only investing in the competitive field. It also has a very strong development programme called Swimming For All, Swimming For Life, which is aimed at reducing the alarming rate of drowning around the world. “For your information, over 360 000 lives are lost every year due to drowning. It’s about four planes that are crashing every day. FINA has the social responsibility of doing something on this matter, because as we often say, swimming is actually the sport that can save lives,” Adrega said.
Another sport organization which also wants to fulfill its social responsibility towards its athletes is FISU. During his presentation, FISU Secretary General Eric Saintrond announced the Healthy Campus project. Its pilot phase will be launched in May. “This programme aims to cater for the students’ wellbeing in all aspect; Physical activity, nutrition, mental health, diseases prevention, risky behaviors, environment, and sustainability,” Saintrond said. “The statistics proves that in 2025, we will have more than 260 million students in higher education in the world. And it’s the social responsibility of FISU to pay attention to the student athletes because most of them are top athletes,” he added. For its pilot phase, the programme will be implemented in seven universities around the world and will be expanded to other universities on September.
FISU unveiled its new logo early last month in view of a dynamic future for university sports. For the new era, the federation officially adopted a new naming system for its flagship sports events as the winter and summer universiades are now known as the World University Games. Saintrond explained the change. “In many countries, like Brazil in South America and eastern countries, they use Universiades for the national events. For the recognition of the event sometime, even in most of the countries they already use world university Games because it’s more understandable,” he defended.
EHF As far as EHF is concern, its challenge is making the handball much more worldwide. “Handball is the major sport in a lot of countries, mainly in Europe and not so much worldwide and what we want to do is to bring handball to more people than see it is at the moment,” Senior Manager of Business Development and Marketing Department JJ Rowland said during his presentation at the AIPS Congress.
To do so, the EHF will focus on making its image to be more attractive. “We are looking closely to our brand over the last two years and creating a new brand, basically looking at who we are, which direction we are going, how we want to be perceived by people and also on the basis of this brand developing new brand asset, logos for our new competitions,” he said, announcing the new contract they have with a major sport agency from July 2020.
The other aspect of the EHF strategy to be more popular specially among young people is digital communication. “in lot of sport the age demographic of the fans is getting older. So we want to focus on attracting new younger fans to handball through our new digital marketing team, which will be based in Madrid. The idea is to create more interesting digital content to bring young people to our sport.”
According the Rowland, EHF is also working hard on a new master plan, which is its strategic plan from 2020 to 2027 to bring more people into playing the sport.
High praise for AIPS Young Reporters programme
The federations were also very appreciative of the AIPS Young Reporters programme. During his presentation, FISU Secretary General hailed the work AIPS is doing under the leadership of its president Gianni Merlo. “In 2011 we launched the Young Reporters Programme together and since then, we organize every two years a YR programme for young journalists and some of them as still with us. Congratulations because you have given the chance to young journalists to become really professionals,” Saintrond praised. For this commitment FISU has awarded Gianni Merlo with the Primo Nebiolo Award, created for people who are giving a lot for sport media.
FINA’s head of media department expressed his delight at the programme. “I know this initiative has been fruitful over the years. We saw yesterday during the Gala that young reporters were awarded and we look very much to reporting the cooperation in the future,” Pedro Adrega said.
“I appreciate the importance of the work of AIPS and I obviously believe that we need to highlight not only the usefulness of your work in covering all sport events and our stars, but also ensuring that our colleagues around the world can find the optimal conditions when covering our competitions. Thanks you very much,” he concluded.
At the 83rd AIPS Congress in Budapest, FINA head of communications department Pedro Adrega shared some facts and figures to highlight some innovations that have aided the development of swimming.
“FINA is organizing the Champions Swim Series event in order to provide an additional opportunity for our stars to gather in a very competitive field. The series incorporate many innovations. It is an invitation only event, with direct finals of four swimmers only, very attractive prize money,” Adrega explained.
“For the two legs held in Shenzhen and Beijing in January 2020 in China, over 1.8 million of US$ was paid; original sport presentation and entertainment show for the spectator inside,” according to him.
Adrega also highlighted the increase in the number of medals at FINA. “49 medals in aquatics, 35 finals in swimming, in diving 8, 2 in artistic swimming, 2 in water polo and 2 in marathon swimming to be competed for by a total of 1410 athletes at the Tokyo Games. This improvement in the number of medals - we had 46 at Rio 2016 - is due to the increase in the swimming programme. Three new races are now on the programme: men's 800m free, women's 1500m free and mixed 4x100m medley relay,” he stated.
FINA is not only investing in the competitive field. It also has a very strong development programme called Swimming For All, Swimming For Life, which is aimed at reducing the alarming rate of drowning around the world. “For your information, over 360 000 lives are lost every year due to drowning. It’s about four planes that are crashing every day. FINA has the social responsibility of doing something on this matter, because as we often say, swimming is actually the sport that can save lives,” Adrega said.
Another sport organization which also wants to fulfill its social responsibility towards its athletes is FISU. During his presentation, FISU Secretary General Eric Saintrond announced the Healthy Campus project. Its pilot phase will be launched in May. “This programme aims to cater for the students’ wellbeing in all aspect; Physical activity, nutrition, mental health, diseases prevention, risky behaviors, environment, and sustainability,” Saintrond said. “The statistics proves that in 2025, we will have more than 260 million students in higher education in the world. And it’s the social responsibility of FISU to pay attention to the student athletes because most of them are top athletes,” he added. For its pilot phase, the programme will be implemented in seven universities around the world and will be expanded to other universities on September.
FISU unveiled its new logo early last month in view of a dynamic future for university sports. For the new era, the federation officially adopted a new naming system for its flagship sports events as the winter and summer universiades are now known as the World University Games. Saintrond explained the change. “In many countries, like Brazil in South America and eastern countries, they use Universiades for the national events. For the recognition of the event sometime, even in most of the countries they already use world university Games because it’s more understandable,” he defended.
EHF As far as EHF is concern, its challenge is making the handball much more worldwide. “Handball is the major sport in a lot of countries, mainly in Europe and not so much worldwide and what we want to do is to bring handball to more people than see it is at the moment,” Senior Manager of Business Development and Marketing Department JJ Rowland said during his presentation at the AIPS Congress.
To do so, the EHF will focus on making its image to be more attractive. “We are looking closely to our brand over the last two years and creating a new brand, basically looking at who we are, which direction we are going, how we want to be perceived by people and also on the basis of this brand developing new brand asset, logos for our new competitions,” he said, announcing the new contract they have with a major sport agency from July 2020.
The other aspect of the EHF strategy to be more popular specially among young people is digital communication. “in lot of sport the age demographic of the fans is getting older. So we want to focus on attracting new younger fans to handball through our new digital marketing team, which will be based in Madrid. The idea is to create more interesting digital content to bring young people to our sport.”
According the Rowland, EHF is also working hard on a new master plan, which is its strategic plan from 2020 to 2027 to bring more people into playing the sport.
High praise for AIPS Young Reporters programme
The federations were also very appreciative of the AIPS Young Reporters programme. During his presentation, FISU Secretary General hailed the work AIPS is doing under the leadership of its president Gianni Merlo. “In 2011 we launched the Young Reporters Programme together and since then, we organize every two years a YR programme for young journalists and some of them as still with us. Congratulations because you have given the chance to young journalists to become really professionals,” Saintrond praised. For this commitment FISU has awarded Gianni Merlo with the Primo Nebiolo Award, created for people who are giving a lot for sport media.
FINA’s head of media department expressed his delight at the programme. “I know this initiative has been fruitful over the years. We saw yesterday during the Gala that young reporters were awarded and we look very much to reporting the cooperation in the future,” Pedro Adrega said.
“I appreciate the importance of the work of AIPS and I obviously believe that we need to highlight not only the usefulness of your work in covering all sport events and our stars, but also ensuring that our colleagues around the world can find the optimal conditions when covering our competitions. Thanks you very much,” he concluded.
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