Dear Colleagues and Friends,
It was great seeing you all at the recent IF Forum and at the joint IOC meeting at the IOC Headquarters in Lausanne.
I would like to thank each and everyone for the constructive discussions and input, regardless of whether it was pro or con, in the dissolution of GAISF. Now that the house has voted in favor of dissolution, we must continue to work as one and even more so, work harder to eventually convince anyone who had been uncertain or against the dissolution, that this was the right decision.
I would like to thank the AIMS Council for all the incredible work, cooperation and friendship once again over the last 12 years. We may not always have the same opinions, but we have the same vision that our cooperation benefits the respective federations and above all, the athletes.
Strengthening the integrity of sport is more important than ever and we must continue to put our athletes at the heart of our work. We encourage our athletes to be the best that they can be, showcasing respect towards each other and I think we have earned our respect and credibility within the Olympic Movement.
We now have become a full stakeholder in SportAccord which entitles us also to revenues. In the new year the council will immediately sit together to approach the IOC on even closer cooperation as AIMS is now the official entry point within the Olympic Family and only if you are a member and recognized by AIMS, can you strive for IOC recognition. This must be clearly communicated by the IOC to the National Olympic Committees and also by AIMS to the highest sport authorities in every country so that the national federations can benefit from this.
We also want to discuss with the IOC further cooperation in all aspects to ensure that there is no duplication, where we can clearly make use of the existing resources the IOC has and certainly we also will discuss financial support towards some of the areas in need. We are in the process of setting up various commissions and these commissions will report to the AIMS Council and we then will prioritize future steps. We will discuss with individual members their needs and take them into account.
The importance is that we continue to place rivalry at the top of our agenda to ensure the protection of our sports and disciplines. We must also continue to place our youth at the center as they are our future to ensure that we stay politically neutral and to stand and promote inclusion, equality and nondiscrimination. One of the future projects will be certainly safeguarding of the athletes and closer cooperation with WADA to protect the clean athletes and our integrity.
We will also start immediately in the new year, the recognition process together with our friends from ASOIF, AWOIF, ARISFS and certainly the IOC both into the AIMS family and also the IOC on the recognition process and the elevator system, which in my opinion, must go up and down.
This is one of our priorities moving forward. We also will work hard in getting our members in the various multi-sport games. The Combat Games are in place and we are now working on the Urban and Mind Games and already working with some of our members to get into continental Olympic Games.
We will also work closely with the International Paralympic and Special Olympics to promote sports for all and we have used United Through Sports to build this close cooperation with all the 3 Olympic organizations.
It is my hope that more AIMS members will involve themselves into this initiative as it has been a great opportunity. For the ones which are not involved, we would like to confirm once more that no financial resources are used directly from AIMS, in fact, AIMS has made profit from UTS over the last 3 years. The sports which have participated, your Ambassadors made such an impact and we applaud them for gracing us with their inspiration. I have included some links on all the 6 days. Whenever you have a moment, please take a couple of minutes to enjoy.
· World Youth Festival 2022 – Day 1 highlights
· World Youth Festival 2022 – Day 2 highlights
· World Youth Festival 2022 – Day 3 highlights
· World Youth Festival 2022 – Day 4 highlights
· World Youth Festival 2022 – Day 5 highlights
· World Youth Festival 2022 – Day 6 highlights
Soon, SportAccord 2023 will be announced and we will use the first quarter of 2023 to finalize all the above and then we will see each other at the upcoming convention and by then, together with the council, we would have already established concrete steps and action plans towards the new AIMS.
AIMS is different in many ways. We are a family on good and bad days. When we met in Lausanne, the friendship, us always finding time to sit together, break bread away from all the politics, the meeting rooms and being a true family, this is what AIMS is all about.
Once again, I would like to thank the entire council, certainly Ravi and each and every one of the AIMS family for a challenging but in the end, a very successful year.
I look forward to continuing working together.
In friendship and respect,
Stephan
Stephan Fox
President, AIMS
Alliance of Independent Recognised Members of Sport
