INSEP visit. (Olympic Solidarity)

Olympic Solidarity
INSEP visit
Denisse Van-Lamoen (left) and Ariane Soleil Rasoafaniry.
In the framework of the Sydney
2000 Olympic Scholarships programme,
Olympic Solidarity signed
an agreement with INSEP, located in
the Bois de Vincennes in Paris, for
some of its Olympic scholarshipholding
athletes to train at the institute.
Therefore, 13 athletes from different
countries, mostly African, are
sharing these facilities with France’s
sporting elite. They have access to
the same coaches as the French
athletes and INSEP coordinates
their trips to pre-Olympic Games
qualifying competitions for sports
such as wrestling and judo. All their
expenses are paid by Olympic Solidarity.
In this way, the athletes who
train in the French capital have only
one common objective to concern
themselves with: participating in the
Games of the XXVII Olympiad in
Sydney next September.
Olympic Solidarity offers the National
Olympic Committees two Olympic
scholarship programmes: Sydney
2000 Scholarships and Olympic
Scholarships for Young Promising
Athletes. Twelve of the athletes currently
training at this centre are part
of the Sydney 2000 programme, but
two of them, the 1500m runner Florence
Djepe (Cameroon), and the
200m sprinter Djaffar Hadhari
(Comoros), have already participated
in the two Young Promising Athletes
programmes organized by
Olympic Solidarity in 1995 and
1996. The only female holder of a
Young Promising Athletes Scholarship
currently at INSEP is swimmer
Salma Beji (Tunisia).
An IOC delegation composed of
Nicole Girard-Savoy and Santiago
Campo, respectively Olympic Solidarity
projects manager and projects
officer, and IOC Internet manager
Stéphane Kanah, recently visited
INSEP with the aim of beginning
the production of an episode of the
television programme Olympic Magazine,
to be broadcast by Eurosport
on the theme: “Olympic Solidarity,
the Sydney 2000 Scholarship programme
and the Horizon project”.
After visiting INSEP’s various facilities,
the delegation proceeded to
film Chilean archer Denisse Van-
Lamoen in training. Although she
had only spent a week at the Institute
she was adapting well to her
new lifestyle, the language and her
fellow athletes. In her interview she
Interviewing Franck Olivier Zio for Eurosport’s Olympic Magazine.
65

spoke of how lucky she was to
receive an Olympic Solidarity scholarship
and to be able to train at
INSEP in the best possible conditions
to prepare for the Games for
which she has already qualified.
Interviews were also conducted with
Frank Olivier Zio, a long-jumper from
Burkina Faso, and Soleil
Rasoafaniry, a judoka from Madagascar
and representative of the
One of the 12 programmes offered by
Olympic Solidarity to the National
Olympic Committees recognized by
the IOC is called “Participation in the
Games of the XXVII Olympiad in Sydney”.
This programme aims to allow all
NOCs to send a delegation to the
Olympic Games as well as to reward
them for providing the “actors”- the
Olympic athletes - of the biggest sport
festival of mankind.
Olympic Solidarity will cover air transport
to Sydney for a maximum of 6 athletes
and 2 officials and SOCOG will
cover the transport for all the remaining
Tom O’Omuombo, President of Zone
5 of the Association of National
Olympic Committees of Africa
(ANOCA), held a ground-breaking
Development and Planning Seminar
in Nairobi, Kenya, last January with
the participation of Francis Nyangweso,
ANOCA President, Tommy Sithole,
ANOCA Secretary General,
Kipjoge Keino, President of the
Kenya NOC, Dick Palmer of Olympic
Solidarity and all the NOCs from the
Zone, represented by their Secretary
Generals and Treasurers.
The major issues confronting the
Olympic Solidarity
African continent for the Internet
Horizon project, which can be consulted
at the following address:
http://www.horizon.olympic.org.
The visit continued with the filming
of the training sessions of wrestlers
Isaac Mpia (Cameroon) and Alioune
Diouf (Senegal), summer Salma
Belji (Tunisia), and athlete Leon
Ouedraogo (Burkina Faso), were
also interviewed.
Games of the XXVII Olympiad in Sydney
athletes and officials. Therefore, for the
first time in the history of the Olympic
Games, the transport of all athletes and
officials will be covered.
Each NOC will receive a subsidy of
US$ 8,000 in order to cover pat-t of the
logistical expenses, and also financial
assistance to a maximum of US$ 5,000
for the President and US$ 5,000 for the
Secretary General towards transport
and accommodation expenses.
Furthermore, each NOC taking part in
the Olympic Games will receive a subsidy
for their contribution to the success
of the Games. This subsidy will
New initiative of ANOCA
NOCs in the Zone were discussed
including finance, problems of travel,
relationship with governmental and
other agencies, legal responsibilities
of NOCs, IOC Reforms, Olympic
Solidarity and future developments in
sport.
A plan of action to be developed in
each of the NOCs was also discussed.
This plan envisaged actions
on such matters as NOC statutes,
developing e-mail and internet capabilities,
technology training, anti-doping
education, developing sports
medicine, external relations, initia-
66
Work on Eurosport’s Olympic Magazine
programme was launched
and its producer Christian Seychal,
hopes the filming can be completed
and the programme broadcast
around June. It was a profitable
visit in every way and the athletes
were delighted with the interest
shown by the IOC and Olympic
Solidarity.
be calculated on the basis of
US$ 1,200 per athlete having participated
in the Games.
Finally, Olympic Solidarity will cover
the transport expenses for one young
person per NOC taking part in the
International Youth Camp. SOCOG
has agreed to cover the transport for
a second young person per NOC.
The International Youth Camp is held
at the same time as the Olympic
Games and allows youngsters from
all over the world to have an Olympic
experience in a smaller scale Olympic
Village.
tives in the area of women in sport,
marketing, athlete based activities,
Olympic Solidarity programmes
including the Sports Administrators
Programme and ways of implementing
and monitoring the plans.
The participants unanimously
agreed, in the summing up of the
seminar, that the programme set
realistic goals for each of them for
the immediate future and they
sought opportunities to meet as a
Zone in order to develop further
plans and to resolve difficulties
encountered in the meantime.