CISM Board of Directors Meeting, CISM 70th Anniversary commemorative events and CISM Day Run for Peace
NICE (FRA) – The CISM Family gathered in Nice from 16 to 18 February for two important events: the first CISM Board of Directors Meeting and the 70th CISM Anniversary commemorative events.
The Board of Directors Meeting took place on January 16 and 17. Besides the topics usually discussed during this meeting such as the President and Secretary General reports, the Vice-Presidents reports, the Finances, Sports, Marketing and Communication reports, the Board of Directors Members had the opportunity to attend a presentation of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games from Bernard Lapasset, co-President of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Bidding Committee and Sophie Lorant, Head of International Relationships of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Bidding Committee.
The Board of Directors Members also had to choose between two candidates for the selection of the candidate for the next Secretary General. The two candidates were Colonel Dorah Mamby Koita, current CISM Secretary General, and Colonel Pedro Celso Gagliardi, CISM PCSC Representative and PCSC Aeronautical Pentathlon. The current SG Colonel Dorah Mamby Koita was chosen by the BoD members to be the candidate for the next SG elections that will take place in Punta Cana in April 2018. Commissaire en chef de 1re classe Hervé Piccirillo, the French Chief of Delegation and Commander of the Centre national des sports de La Défense, will also be candidate for the CISM Presidency elections that will also take place in Punta Cana.
The main event of the week was held yesterday in Nice as the commemorative ceremonies of the CISM 70th Anniversary were held on January 18. The day started with a ceremony at the Memorial of Rauba Capeu in presence of the Colonel Dirk Schwede, CISM acting President, Colonel Dorah Mamby Koita, CISM Secretary General, BoD Members, former CISM Presidents and Secretary General, BoD Members, PCSC, the Chiefs of Staff of the founding Nations, French Military authorities, Nice’s authorities and members of the CISM Family. A tribute was paid to the Deaths and Victims of Terror and a minute of Silence was observed.
A second ceremony was held in the Albert 1st Gardens in Nice. CISM Acting President unveiled the plaque marking the 70th anniversary of the CISM creation.
Colonel Dirk Schwede declared: “I feel the pride to be the heir of our Founding Fathers who gathered here, 70 years ago, and decided to send the most powerful and meaningful message of peace to the World by creating CISM”. He also added: “We keep developing innovative projects to offer all military sportsmen and women of the world a large variety of opportunities to practice their sport at high level and build ever-lasting relationships with their brother in arms from fellow nations. In this sense, CISM strives to offer sport events to military athletes with a disability, we promote equality among genders in sport, we open our events to new categories of participants, we develop solidarity actions to help athletes from less privileged nations join our world championships and we promote academic researches on sports sciences”.
Right after this ceremony, the CISM Day Run for Peace started on the Promenade des Anglais with more than 140 competitors and teams from the five founding nations and local clubs. The four athletes of the Dutch Delegation in front of numerous local spectators who supported all the athletes won the run! A great success for this important CISM initiative!
The commemorative ceremonies ended with a magnificent Gala Dinner in presence of the CISM Family in the Servotel Hotel!
This great week will end with the PCSC Meeting that will take place on January 19 and 20.
(Source: CISM Media and Communication Department)
(Pictures: Mr. Maxime Morlet, CISM Media and Communication Assistant)
