Olympism and youth
Inactivity is “a problem that threatens to become as urgent and critical as that of global warming or poverty.”
This was the message of keynote speaker José Manuel Ramos Horta, President of Timor-Leste and Nobel Peace Prize winner. He described this inactivity as a serious and growing threat to world health, quoting figures from a study by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which shows that sedentarity is one of the main risk factors for cardiac related problems and other non-transmissible diseases such as strokes, diabetes, cancer and asthma. The WHO study showed that, in 2004, non-transmissible diseases accounted for 60 per cent of deaths in the world. The Congress recommended that measures be taken to combat this inactivity, particularly among young people.
The Congress recommended closer cooperation between governments and sports organisations and that governments build more sports facilities as well as allocate more time for sports activities in schools, “at all ages and at all levels”.
The Congress described the Youth Olympic Games as “a unique opportunity in the history of the modern Olympic Movement to raise the bar worldwide in terms of the delivery of educational and sport programmes for all young people”.
You can access the texts of each speaker, their presentation (if available) and the video of each session by clicking the links below.
PLENARY SESSION
HE José Manuel Ramos-Horta Keynote speaker
Patrick J. Hickey NOC representative
Rita Subowo IOC representative
Bob Elphinston IF representative
DISCUSSION SESSIONS
1) MOVING TOWARDS AN ACTIVE SOCIETY
HRH Princess Haya Al Hussein IOC representative
Raja Randhir Singh NOC representative
Bruno Grandi IF representative
Lord Sebastian Coe Stakeholder representative
2) IS COMPETITIVE SPORT STILL APPEALING?
Gudrun Doll-Tepper Moderator
Ugur Erdener IOC representative
Henri Sérandour NOC representative
Mustafa Larfaoui IF representative
Nicole Hoevertsz Stakeholder representative
3) YOUTH SPORT EVENTS
Michael S. Fennell Moderator
Zaiqing Yu IOC representative
Chee Hean Teo NOC representative
Niels Nygaard NOC representative
Guido de Bondt Stakeholder representative