Nenad Dikic, President of the Anti Doping Commission was a featured speaker at the SportAccord conference in Sochi, Russia (Photo: UIAA)
The UIAA was present at the SportAccord Convention in Sochi, Russia earlier this month with the goal of promoting the federation and its ice climbing progamme with Olympic and other sports decision makers.
Representing the UIAA at SportAccord were President Frits Vrijlandt, Anti Doping Commission President Nenad Dikic and Office Manager Sophie Gerard.
During the conference the UIAA delegation met with officials from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to re-enforce the UIAA’s interest in making competition ice climbing a full-fledged competition sport in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
Vrijlandt also spoke about the launch of the Clean Climbing programme of the UIAA to promote anti-doping education among local organizers at UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour events. He highlighted efforts to make ice climbing a clean sport and the training of anti doping officials at events such as the UIAA World Cup in Bozeman, Montana.
The delegation also met with IOC and International University Sports Federation (FISU) officials about the inclusion of ice climbing at the Lillehammer 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games and the 2019 World University Games in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
“The discussion with the IOC and FISU and our interest in having ice climbing as an event was received warmly by both organizations and is part of our ongoing efforts to widen the appeal of the sport and the participation of more young people,” said Vrijlandt.
“Our ambition remains to make ice climbing an Olympic sport, and as more and more young people join the ranks of competition ice climbers, there is a need for alternate venues for competitions besides just the UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour and the World Youth Ice Climbing Championships,” said Vrijlandt.
Dikic was a featured speaker in the programme where he spoke about the implementation of Word Anti Doping Agency (WADA) rules during the UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour. It was the first time a UIAA official has spoken at a SportAccord conference.
SportAccord is an international organization that represents both Olympic and non-Olympic international sports federations.
