|
|
11 / 06 / 2004
Juan Antonio Samaranch: a country’s wealth is its education and that’s where shorts have great power
The honorary president of the Olympic Committee highlighted that Spain is the country that has organized the most sports competitions and that after the 1992 Olympics Barcelona is a different city
Jaime Lissavetzky, secretary of state and president of the Superior Sports Council, said sports are dialogue because they accept everyone.
Information about Sports: A Universal Dialogue.
Juan Antonio Samaranch, honorary president of the International Olympic Committee, said this morning at the opening ceremony of the Dialogue “Sports: A Universal Dialogue” that the wealth of people and countries lies in education, and within that sports have great power.” He assured that in his visits with the Olympic committee he has seen countries that lack resources, but are strong because they thrive in education and sports.”
He described the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona as a transcendental event in the city’s history and pointed out that “since ’92 nothing is the same, Barcelonans’ personality has changed, not just toward the outside world, but inside as well, now we are more enterprising.”
José María Echevarría, president of the Spanish Olympic Committee, agreed on the value of sports as a channel for solidarity and peace among peoples. He added that the sports world is becoming more and more complex due to contradictory interests. He insisted that “national Olympic committees should be independent politically as well as financially, so as to be stable and balanced and on the margin of politics.”
In his speech, Jaime Lissavetzky, secretary of state and president of the Superior Council for Sports in Spain highlighted the importance his country gives to sports since ”we spend more on sports than on research and development.” He pointed to sports as a vehicle for communication, unity, solidarity and dialogue since “sports accept everyone.”
Moreover, Rafael Niubó, general secretary for sports for the autonomous government of Catalonia, pointed out the economic importance of sports, since in many countries it’s an important part of the GDP. He provided some figure on Catalonia, including the fact that 63% of the population plays a sport, that sports represent three and three and a half percent of the GDP, and makes for 15 million volunteers every week and 70,000 jobs.
He suggested that sports learn from other branches, like tourism, how to better manage resources and hoped to link sports to other sectors like healthcare, since many non-contagious diseases can be reduced or eliminated with exercise.
According to María Dulce Almeida, head of preventive education and sports for Unesco, it is contradictory that on a survey done by her organization 92% of countries include sports in their education programs, but very few of them actually do.
She also insisted on the importance of sports as an tool for education in order to create more empathetic, responsible human beings. “Sports help improve self esteem, the relationship between school and people, and they have been shown to improve concentration and academic performance.”
The Dialogue “Sports: A Universal Dialogue” began today at the Forum and will end tomorrow June 12.
|
|
|
Send to a friend
print