Day Two in Bangkok
The most interesting discovery we made was that the Olympic Federations rely less and less on the financial support from the IOC that they negotiate through ASOIF. The federations are able to generate more and more of their funding through their own sponsorships. The only figure revealed was that of only 35% - as an average for the 32 Member IFs - of their overall funds coming from the IOC/ASOIF. Some of these federations have hundreds of staff. This is a great goal to have.
I couldn’t help thinking what our federation would look like if we had the same financial means as some of the other federations included in the Olympic Games. The projects we could embark on for the development of DanceSport in all countries would be amazing. The help that could come to the organizers, the administration and especially the athletes. This would open a completely different scenario for us all!
We then used a few hours preparing for the other important meetings that we had.
The next meeting was with the IOC, with one representative from the IOC, one from GAISF and one from the YOG project taking part in it.
We spoke of our AGM in Lausanne, SUI, and extended an invitation to the IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell to attend it on 17 June.
An important point on the agenda were the Youth Olympic Games. The IOC is very impressed by our level of professionalism with regards to his project. Everybody eagerly anticipates the dynamic effect that our sport could have on the YOG and felt the DNA of our events was a perfect match. The representatives were impressed to hear that only one person in the Lausanne office was executing this job (besides Jean-Laurent who is overseeing the whole project). Their experience with other federations is that at least three persons are hired full-time for YOG preparations. A big thanks should go to the Lausanne staff: they are working overtime!
The best compliment the WDSF received all day was:
“The world is your oyster compared to what you can achieve. Your federation really has the diversity to bring unbelievable extra value to the Games!” That statement coming from an IOC member made our day!
At 23:49 I’m checking out.
See you tomorrow.
Ashli
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