Panel session of the NOC Executive Committee

The panel session of the NOC Belarus Executive Board was held on January, 19 2011. The agenda included 4 issues:

• The nomination of the Chef de Mission for the XI European Youth Olympic Summer Festival in Trabzon (Turkey).
• The nomination of the Belarusian national sports delegation for the EYOWF in Liberec (Czech Republic).
• The nominees for the award "Belarusian sport Olympus".
• The experience of the Representative office of the NOC Belarus of the Republic of Belarus in the Brest Region in promoting the ideals and principles of the Olympism in the region.

Igor Zaichkov, first vice-president of the NOC Belarus, was the host of the session.

George Katulin, secretary general of the NOC Belarus, made a statement on the first issue of the agenda.

He announced that more than 4000 athletes from 49 European countries are going to compete in the event. Almost 80 Belarusian athletes under 18 are going to take part in the event.

He proposed to appoint Sergei Mazurkevich, head of the sports department of the Ministry of sport and tourism, Chef de Mission of the Belarusian delegation. Anton Yuspa, leading specialist of the department of the international relations and cooperation with sports organizations was appointed deputy Chef de Mission of the delegation. All the members of the Executive Committee approved these two candidatures.

The second issue was delivered by Sergei Nered, deputy minister of sport and tourism. He stated that the delegation has almost been formed. Only cross-country skiers haven’t completed their qualifying events yet. All the changes can be made until January, 25.

The Belarusian boys and girls took part in EYOWF in 1993 for the first time. Since then they have participated in 14 Festivals and have won 62 medals (15-19-28).

The competitions of young athletes are organized under the patronage of the IOC and according to the Charter of the EYOF, adopted by the EOC.

EYOWF is considered to be one of the largest-scale sport events organized in Europe this year.

Around 1000 young athletes from 49 European countries will compete in 8 classical winter disciplines: alpine skiing, cross country skiing, figure skating, biathlon, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping and snowboarding.

As far as the third issue on the agenda is concerned, it was delivered by George Katulin, secretary general of the NOC Belarus.

The Panel of the Executive Committee discussed the list of the candidates compiled by the federations and decided to nominate Vladimir Shantarovich, head coach of the national rowing team, for the award. The athletes he coached got 7 medals (3-3-1) at the World Championships in 2010, 8 awards (3-2-3) at the Europe Championships and 19 (8-4-7) medals at the World Cup. The final decision on the awardee is going to be taken by the ruling of the head of the state.

At the end of the session the panel addressed the issue of the experience of the Representative office in the Brest region in promoting ideals and principles of the Olympism in the region. The issue was delivered by the chairman of the standing commission of the NOC Belarus on mass media and media resources Piotr Riabukhin and the executive director of the Representative office in the Brest region Elena Belokonenko. The Representative offi?e was establish on November 15, 1999. The staff numbers 93 members. The Executive Board consists of 13 members. The chairman of the Representative office of the NOC of the Republic of Belarus in the Brest region is Leonid Tsuprik. The main lines of activities of the Representative Office in promoting ideals and principles of the Olympism in the region are the following:

• organization and participation in mass sport and propaganda events
• development of the program "Sport for all"
• activities aimed at the introduction of Olympic education
• propaganda of healthy life style and Olympic movement
• active cooperation with mass media
• support of the athletes, coaches and personnel of the sport sphere in the region
• cooperation with organizations.

The Representative Office in the Brest region can be called the leader in this line of activities and a good example to be followed in analyzing the experience and introduction of the forms of activities by all the Representative offices of the NOC Belarus in the regions.

The Representative office of the Brest region was the first to initiate the setting up of the clubs "Young Olympian", holding sports festivals under the title "Olympic spartakiada" and creating Olympic corners at schools.

There are 484 clubs "Young Olympian" in the Brest region all in all. Each club is registered by the ruling of the Executive board of the Representative office and is issued the certificate of registration and has to obey the Charter.

As far as the development program of Olympic education in the Brest region is concerned, it includes the creation of Olympic corners and the organization o? Olympic classes, holding Olympic days and Olympic weeks, contests on the Olympic theme, competitions, awarding the best district (city) of the Brest region in terms of developing Olympic education and its participation in the Republican campaign "Olympism and youth".

One of the forms of propaganda of the ideals and principles of the Olympism in the region is through the organization of all kinds of contests and quizzes. The Representative office has worked out 5 major contests for the children: sports doll, photo "Youth and sport", landscape design, sport postcard and arts and crafts.

The Representative office has already signed 30 cooperation agreements with the mass media of the region.

Having analyzed the style and the working method of the Representative office in the Brest region it should be pointed out that this public association is quite effective in terms of propagating the ideals and principles of the Olympism which is beneficial for the upbringing of children, teens and high education students in the spirit of patriotism and devotion to the native land.