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Above IOC President Thomas Bach at the first Global Conference on Faith and Sport at the Vatican alongside Pope Francis and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moonTHE POPE, UN SECRETARY-GENERAL AND IOC PRESIDENT JOIN FORCES ON FAITH AND SPORTIn October, sporting, religious and political leaders came together in the Vatican for the first Global Conference on Faith and Sport. Before the conference, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach was granted a private audience with Pope Francis.The conference saw the IOC President, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Pope Francis give welcoming speeches ahead of the three-day event, which aimed to put “sport at the service of humanity”. Organisers described the inaugural conference as a “chance for a new drive to promote and extol the virtues of faith and sport in our lives”. The meeting was organised under the six principles “shared by faith and sport” of compassion, respect, love, enlightenment, balance and joy. After the conference, President Bach held a meeting with the UN Secretary-General to discuss cooperation between the IOC and the UN with regard to refugees and the Sustainable Development Goals. IOC Honorary President Jacques Rogge, IOC Vice-Presidents John Coates, Juan Antonio Samaranch and Uğur Erdener, and IOC Members Franco Carraro, Mario Pescante, HSH the Sovereign Prince Albert II, Sam Ramsamy, Philip Craven, HRH Prince Feisal Bin Al-Hussein, Kirsty Coventry and Nita Ambani also attended the conference. 12 OLYMPIC REVIEW