SPORT 1913 - 2013

part two_CHAPTER 9

lack of cooperation agreement between FILA and the CSIT. FILA President Raphael Marti- netti and Secretary-General Michel Dusson met CSIT President Harald Bauer and the Ex- ecutive Committee Member Yoram Arnstein, former President of the Wrestling Federation of Israel, in order to find a sport-friendly solu- tion. The negotiations brought the interests of both organisations to the surface. Finally FILA accepted the CSIT as one of the worldwide sport for all organisations that had supported wrestling on an amateur level for decades. The result was the immediate suspension of the former penalty announced by the FILA and a proper contract of cooperation between both sport organisations for the promotion of wres- tling in the field of workers and amateurs in sport. This situation emphasises the importance of a well-grounded network within the interna- tional sports world and the better understand- ing of each other’s interests. Cooperation agree- ments with other International Federations should be drawn up, if similar conflicts to the one described above are to be avoided. The SportAccord Convention being held each year is a wonderful promotional platform for organisers of international sports events. Therefore, SportAccord President Hein Ver- bruggen was asked in 2011 to offer a stage to the CSIT in 2013. The information about the 100 years festival of the CSIT and the 3 rd CSIT World Sports Games in Varna – Bulgaria, both being organised in 2013, should reach the ears of approximately 1,800 international delegates

in the SportAccord Convention in St. Peters- burg, Russia, in May 2013.

All, a platform for sharing experience and bet- ter practise. In the year 2005, the idea grew that the historical “Workers Olympiad” should be resur- rected by gathering all the different kinds of sports within the CSIT at the same time and in the same location. This initiative had been dis- cussed several times since 1998 by the CSIT Ex- ecutive Committee. To concentrate on a unique sport festival, to bring together people from all over the world and to have tournaments in 14 different sports as well as a couple of non-com- petitive sports and physical activities finally brought approximately 3.000 athletes and del- egates from30 different countries worldwide to Rimini, Italy, in July 2008. This success an- nounced the rebirth of the former “Workers Olympiads” that were the highlights of the workers sport movement in the 1920’s and 1930’s; 1925 in Frankfurt, Germany, 1931 in Vi- enna, Austria, and 1937 in Antwerp, Belgium. From that moment on the CSIT had a new product and a new brand, the so-called “CSIT World Sports Games”. And from that moment on the technical sport committees and the volunteers started developing and im- proving this project. Jacques Rogge, the IOC President elected in 2001 turned out to be a great collaborator of the workers sport move- ment. Regular visits have nurtured the rela- tionship and lead to confidence, first by CSIT President MP. Kalevi Olin and CSIT Vice Pres- ident Michael Sulzbacher in May 2003, with fruitful discussions in his office to update him on the situation in general and with the news

Closer Cooperation with the IOC The long lasting competitive stand-off be- tween the Olympic movement and the work- ers sport movement finally achieved a new step of harmonisation, when in 1986, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch officially declared in writing the CSIT to be a recog- nised organisation of the International Olym- pic Committee (Samaranch 1986). From that moment on the workers sport leadership was not only entitled to attend the IOC Sport for All congresses, but also achieved for the first time in history, official membership status and received annual financial support from the IOC. This new quality of recognition was enjoyed and welcomed by the member unions of the international workers sport movement though some hesitation about a too close col- laboration with the IOC was expressed, too. However, close relationship with the IOC was kept further by the new CSIT President MP. Kalevi Olin while negotiating with President Juan Antonio Samaranch in the IOC head- quarters in Lausanne in March 1998. Since 1998 Professor Olin and later Ex- ecutive Member Jörgen Möller (DAI) repre- sented the CSIT in the 1983 founded IOC Sport for All Commission, that has been chaired by the Finnish Professor Paavo Komi, Walter Tröger (Germany) and Sam Ramsamy (South Africa). Until today the CSIT is actively par- ticipating in World Conferences on Sport for

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