Post by schlager7 on Jul 17, 2005 14:10:13 GMT -6
From the June 2005 issue of Escrime. The next wave of foil changes?
www.fie.ch/download/magazines/2005/Escrime_01_25.pdf
The 2005 Congress to be held in Doha will be of the utmost importance as it will have to make a decision on the direction our sport needs to take in the lead-up to the next Olympic Games. Athens was a success and obviously we could continue in the same vein as unfortunately has been the case for many years.
This would be dangerous and we must understand that all the sports are competing with each other as we will be assessed by the IOC after each Olympic Games, and only the sports obtaining over 50% of the votes will remain in the Olympic programme.
Therefore we must reappraise our situation and take the media’s and the IOC’s observations into consideration. This does not mean that we must change for change’s sake. We must be driven by reasonable and valid motives. You have received a number of proposals that we will be bringing to your attention during the next congress. Some of them are a response to issues that we consider to be essential, while others deal with feelings that perhaps do not need to be addressed immediately. What problems are we facing that seem to require urgent solutions?
The first issue is “clarity” for the media and the public.
The second issue is fairly similar to the first one but concerns refereeing more specifically.
Finally and more generally, we must adapt our sport to its environment.
In light of these requirements, the proposed changes have been subjected to a comprehensive technical survey by the SEMI committee and our international technical director.
Another issue has also received our full attention: the cost of changes and cost cutting for the future.
We are in the process of completing part of the tests on foil. It appears that the changes made have been beneficial to foil’s image and have restored the style that it had lost along the way. The other changes that
had been proposed during the congress will be on the agenda again, some of them with the purpose of making it easier for the public to understand, and some of them to make refereeing more objective.
Whether we like it or not, a sport cannot survive without public support. A popular sport will benefit from the support of the media and will therefore attract sponsors. This is true for our championships but also for
the Olympic Games and this is why the Olympic Committee, in their report on various sports, asked what the income of the international federation
was, outside that generated by the Olympic Games. This report also focused on the amount of television coverage enjoyed by our sport throughout the year.
The proposals regarding the white lamp and new
valid areas have taken into account the compulsory requirements and aim at making our sport easier to understand.
In addition, the removal of the white lamp allows for the use of the “wire-less” system, which gives our sport a more modern appearance and reduces its cost thanks to the removal of metallic pistes. This can enhance the leisure aspect of fencing and encourage the popularisation of our sport in the emerging countries.
Refereeing is the other issue that must be tackled. A lot of sports resort to video because it is the only logical solution to reach an objective decision. The usage by certain sports similar to our sport, like wrestling for instance, has demonstrated that its implementation is not as difficult as some people would have us believe. In order to reassure anybody led to believe that it was a decision made by the Executive Committee, I will remind them that this decision was made before I became President, when I was still the secretary, treasurer and president of the Promotional Committee. This implementation is necessary for the future of our sport as the quality of refereeing is a crucial element in the assessment of Olympic sports.
Of course other proposals are being made on this subject that would be a step backwards. How much time have we already wasted with this conservative attitude? How many times have I heard that it would not
work and how many proposals have been made to hinder the progress of our sport?
Setting things in motion is not easy to do, as it is easier for a president to just tread water in a crisis... Striving for change does not make you popular but it makes you confident that you are working for the future.
I would like to remind you of the words of the late leading president Bondoux. I had asked him to kindly give a speech for our 80th anniversary. In the course of his address, at which he always excelled, he talked
about the presidents of the International Fencing Federation and said: “Ah! X was a great president.” I asked him later: “What did ever do to be such a great president?”. And he answered me at the top of his voice: “Absolutely nothing. He did nothing and this is why he was a great president.”
So why change?
www.fie.ch/download/magazines/2005/Escrime_01_25.pdf
The 2005 Congress to be held in Doha will be of the utmost importance as it will have to make a decision on the direction our sport needs to take in the lead-up to the next Olympic Games. Athens was a success and obviously we could continue in the same vein as unfortunately has been the case for many years.
This would be dangerous and we must understand that all the sports are competing with each other as we will be assessed by the IOC after each Olympic Games, and only the sports obtaining over 50% of the votes will remain in the Olympic programme.
Therefore we must reappraise our situation and take the media’s and the IOC’s observations into consideration. This does not mean that we must change for change’s sake. We must be driven by reasonable and valid motives. You have received a number of proposals that we will be bringing to your attention during the next congress. Some of them are a response to issues that we consider to be essential, while others deal with feelings that perhaps do not need to be addressed immediately. What problems are we facing that seem to require urgent solutions?
The first issue is “clarity” for the media and the public.
The second issue is fairly similar to the first one but concerns refereeing more specifically.
Finally and more generally, we must adapt our sport to its environment.
In light of these requirements, the proposed changes have been subjected to a comprehensive technical survey by the SEMI committee and our international technical director.
Another issue has also received our full attention: the cost of changes and cost cutting for the future.
We are in the process of completing part of the tests on foil. It appears that the changes made have been beneficial to foil’s image and have restored the style that it had lost along the way. The other changes that
had been proposed during the congress will be on the agenda again, some of them with the purpose of making it easier for the public to understand, and some of them to make refereeing more objective.
Whether we like it or not, a sport cannot survive without public support. A popular sport will benefit from the support of the media and will therefore attract sponsors. This is true for our championships but also for
the Olympic Games and this is why the Olympic Committee, in their report on various sports, asked what the income of the international federation
was, outside that generated by the Olympic Games. This report also focused on the amount of television coverage enjoyed by our sport throughout the year.
The proposals regarding the white lamp and new
valid areas have taken into account the compulsory requirements and aim at making our sport easier to understand.
In addition, the removal of the white lamp allows for the use of the “wire-less” system, which gives our sport a more modern appearance and reduces its cost thanks to the removal of metallic pistes. This can enhance the leisure aspect of fencing and encourage the popularisation of our sport in the emerging countries.
Refereeing is the other issue that must be tackled. A lot of sports resort to video because it is the only logical solution to reach an objective decision. The usage by certain sports similar to our sport, like wrestling for instance, has demonstrated that its implementation is not as difficult as some people would have us believe. In order to reassure anybody led to believe that it was a decision made by the Executive Committee, I will remind them that this decision was made before I became President, when I was still the secretary, treasurer and president of the Promotional Committee. This implementation is necessary for the future of our sport as the quality of refereeing is a crucial element in the assessment of Olympic sports.
Of course other proposals are being made on this subject that would be a step backwards. How much time have we already wasted with this conservative attitude? How many times have I heard that it would not
work and how many proposals have been made to hinder the progress of our sport?
Setting things in motion is not easy to do, as it is easier for a president to just tread water in a crisis... Striving for change does not make you popular but it makes you confident that you are working for the future.
I would like to remind you of the words of the late leading president Bondoux. I had asked him to kindly give a speech for our 80th anniversary. In the course of his address, at which he always excelled, he talked
about the presidents of the International Fencing Federation and said: “Ah! X was a great president.” I asked him later: “What did ever do to be such a great president?”. And he answered me at the top of his voice: “Absolutely nothing. He did nothing and this is why he was a great president.”
So why change?