Page 20

20 OLYMPIC REVIEW SOUTH SUDANESE DELEGATION MAKES FIRST VISIT TO IOC HEADQUARTERS SAMOA ESTABLISHES INSTITUTE OF SPORTSA delegation from the newest National Olympic Committee (NOC), South Sudan, which was recognised by the IOC in July 2015, made its first-ever visit to the IOC headquarters in Lausanne on 25-26 January.Composed of NOC President Lt. Gen. Wilson Deng Kuoirot, Secretary General Tong Chor Malek Deran, First Vice President Eng. Juma Lemi, Treasurer Mohamed El Haj Baballa and Board Member and Marketing Director Gabriel Geng Geng, the delegation went through a two-day programme introducing IOC services to NOCs. This included meetings with President Thomas Bach, as well as representatives from Olympic Solidarity, NOC Relations, and the IOC Sports Department in view of the first participation of South Sudanese athletes at the Olympic Games Rio 2016. At the end of the visit, NOC President Wilson Deng Kuoirot declared: “We are proud to be part of the Olympic Movement. What we’ve learned from these two days will be fundamental for the huge work our NOC has to carry on to promote sport and put it at the service of peace in South Sudan.”Below Lt. Gen. Wilson Deng Kuoirot, President of the Olympic Movement’s newest NOC, meets President Bach in LausanneThe Samoan Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour has registered the Oceania Institute of Sports (OIS) to operate as a non-profit, community-based sports association. The OIS is part of the Samoan NOC’s 2015-2019 strategic plan, which is designed to establish and develop professional training for elite athletes in Samoa and the Oceania region. The objective is to provide ongoing training and support to enable the athletes to represent their country at major international competitions such as the Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games. The OIS will work with the NOC at the Olympic Day Games and the Samoa Games, the two main annual sports events at which athletes will be selected for training at the institute.On 9 December, the Austrian NOC named the University of Vienna as an official Olympic Training Centre – the sixth of its kind in Austria. The other five are in Dornbirn, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, Linz and Salzburg-Rif. “After winning no medals at the Olympic Games London 2012, it was time to think about improving our training facilities and the training conditions for our top athletes,” explained Austrian NOC President Karl Stoss. “We therefore have inaugurated an international advisory group, a detailed catalogue of quality measures and requirements, and permanent evaluation and monitoring of the facilities. Moreover, all of the Olympic Training Centres have launched so-called Olympic projects, focused on the next Summer and Winter Games.” AUSTRIAN NOC ADDS OLYMPIC TRAINING CENTREAbove Austrian NOC President Karl Stoss