The Congress was translated live into 6 languages, offering English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Hungarian channels and while this shows inclusion, a further step was taken, to also make climate change issues a priority, evidenced by the whole event being paperless, facilitated by the collaboration between the IJF and Huawei.
Huawei provided tablets for all delegates, to enable secure voting online, in conjunction with the Lumi Company’s secure voting system. Lumi is a world leader, employed by the IOC and with a notary and a team of scrutineers present, live online, the system ran smoothly and efficiently.
The hybrid format brought together more than double the minimum number of delegates required to ensure the Congress was quorate and this in itself shows the power of evolution.
Just one cloud hung over the gathering, that of the obituaries. We said a formal goodbye to the judoka who left us this past year and took time to reflect on their great contributions to our lives. All will be missed and all remain in our thoughts.
Once all delegates had the opportunity to get to grips with the technology of the event, IJF President, Mr Marius Vizer, opened the meeting,
“Dear EC Members, Presidents, General Secretaries, delegates and the judo family, we are here, today, together and I have the pleasure to present you with our activities of the past two years. The Covid-19 era brought us, like everybody else, challenges in and unprecedented situation. I believe that together, we managed to keep our sport present in the lives of all those who love judo and are involved with it. We managed to overcome obstacles, continue our activities as much as the health crisis allowed and bring about innovations that further developed strong links between the members of the international judo community.”
Mr Vizer highlighted the IJF office move from Lausanne to Budapest, which was not an easy task, but spoke of the invaluable support given by the Hungarian government for that project and also for the organisation of the World Championships, during such a tumultuous period.
Mr Vizer continued, “However strange it may sound, one of our biggest achievements in the past year was the successful organisation of competitions. After 6 months break, we restarted the World Judo Tour, with a first Grand Slam event here in Budapest. We have developed our in-house Covid-19 protocol, which we distributed to all our members to ensure fair and safe conditions for all.
During the break we managed to maintain clear and reasonable communication, making sure that athletes and coaches remained reassured. In 2020 we were the only combat sport which resumed competitions and our work was praised equally by the IOC and Tokyo 2020. Based on a solid qualification system, the pandemic did not have any impact on the qualification and athletes were granted fair conditions and possibilities, as much as possible.”
The good news is not limited to logistics and competitions.
“The world is shifting towards digital consumption in all sports and especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, the IJF increased its online presence, engaging the judo community in unique and custom-made online activities. I am proud to announce that the IJF is in the top 10 of all Olympic IFs regarding all aspects of social media; a very good and promising result.
Although the pandemic brought many challenges, it also gave us time and the chance to implement new ideas and to innovate in several sectors. We maintained regular and transparent communication with all stakeholders and we managed to keep all our media partners, despite not being able to offer all the events that were contracted for 2020. Not only that, but we will continue collaborating with them, thanks to successful negotiations. We concluded another 4-year agreement with Taishan, our main equipment supplier and partner, as well as with SOCAR. Additionally we welcome aboard a new partner, Ultima Collection. We are thankful to our partners for their trust and investment in judo and for sharing our global vision of development.”
Mr Vizer went on to mention the ground-breaking collaboration with Metro Goldwyn Mayer in the documenting of the story of Saeid Mollaei and Sagi Muki, not only rivals but great friends, bridging the political gap between their cultures and proving that sport and friendship are stronger allies than any differences we may have.
“We can all be proud of our humanitarian determination, to stand by a persecuted athlete and to send a strong message of zero tolerance for any form of discrimination in sport.”
Mr Vizer then spoke of the challenges faced by younger judoka around the world, with the loss of competition for most, for more than a year, but was clear that their health had to remain the highest priority. With that in mind the IJF considers that the reopening of the world is at a stage where we can again focus on the young ones and to that end the World Judo Championships for Juniors has now been scheduled to take place in Italy later this year. Cadet events are to follow. Step by step we are allowing hope and ingenuity to hold hands for the purpose or re-energising our sport at all levels. We are winning!
This led to a reminder of the most prestigious event of all, “We are only one month away from the long-awaited Tokyo Olympic Games. Many of the preparations were left until the last moment, due to the pandemic. It will be a very different edition, with only domestic spectators and enhanced movement restrictions for all stakeholders. We all tried to simplify our operations as much as possible and the Tokyo Olympics will be an excellent example of joint effort and unity from the world of sports. We are determined to make judo shine and we know our athletes will put on an attractive competition. In addition to our usual quota, in Tokyo the IJF will also have a Refugee Mixed Team, composed of 6 athletes and 1 coach, participating in the first ever Olympic Judo Team Event. Our team will be officially integrated in the Refugee Olympic Team of the IOC and they will have a distinct programme of media engagements, as well as participation in the athletes’ parade during the opening ceremony.
Alongside our work with refugee athletes, we recently signed the UN Women Sport for Generation Equality Framework and also the UN Sports for Climate Change Action Group, showing our focus on both gender equity and climate change. We are also working on a global partnership with UNHCR, as the IJF is clearly leading the way when it comes to refugee athletes.”
Mr Vizer thanked all for their dedication and handed the floor to Hungarian government representative, Dr. Furjes Balazs, Minister of State for the Development of Budapest, Prime Minister's Office, said, “I hope Budapest will become your second best city in the world, after your respective home cities. Budapest is an extraordinary city for sport, culture and business, with a superb location, a moderate climate, high level facilities and a booming economy. It's also a very safe city. I am glad and honoured to see all of you here. Please come as often as possible. We will always take good care of you. We are also very happy to see that the IJF has chosen Budapest to be the headquarters of your organisation. Marius Vizer and his team are capable of facing all challenges. I wish you all the best during your stay."
Dr. Laszlo Toth, Hungarian Judo Federation President said, "It is always a pleasure to see people from all over the world joining us here in Hungary and I want to welcome every one of you. Together with the IJF we are going to organise a superb event. I wish you success and a wonderful stay in our beautiful country."
Following introductions and welcome speeches, voting on resolutions continued throughout the proceedings and of course there was the matter of the election of the IJF President. This was the smoothest part of the day, with unanimous support for Mr Vizer’s re-election. This was followed by the announcement of Mr Vlad Marinescu’s appointment to the position of IJF Director General. Both men received warm applause and accepted their roles graciously.
Reports from Executive Committee members followed, regarding all areas of the operations of the IJF.
Mr Marinescu spoke about the mountain of work undertaken by the IT and Media Teams, recapping projects such as JudoFit, Judo In Schools, social media upgrades and much more.
Mr Vladimir Barta, IJF Head Sport Director, gave his report and noted particularly the uniqueness of the judo mixed teams event in Tokyo, in terms of the number of athletes allowed to participate. “This is different from any other sport discipline. However many teams qualify, that is the number that will participate.” Again, judo is proud to be progressing and leading.
Mr Al Tamimi, IJF General Treasurer, spoke of the good financial health of the IJF and then the floor was back with Mr Vizer for the announcements regarding new and departing Executive Committee members.
Before the conclusion of a successful congress, all continental presidents also gave thorough reports about the activities that were conducted in the respective continents over the past two years, showing that the judo had been very active on all five continents.
Mr Habib Sissoko (MLI) was succeeded by Thierry Siteny (MAD) as President of the AJU, but Mr Sissoko remains on the Executive Committee. Manuel Larrañaga (MEX) was succeeded as President of the PJC by Carlos Zegarra (PER). Mr Juan Carlos Barcos (ESP) and Mr Jan Snijders (NED) step down from their roles as Head Referee Directors and will be handing their seats to Mr Daniel Lascau (ROU), Mr Ki-Young Jeon (KOR) and Mr Armen Bagdasarov (UZB). Mr Gérard Benone (SUI) departs. Also appointed to new roles on the Executive Committee were Salima Souakri (ALG), Sanda Čorak (CRO), Skander Hachicha (TUN), Mike Tamura (CAN) and Erdenetod Khishigbat (MGL). It was noted that the new appointments include 3 women, who will join Dr Lisa Allan, who took office as the first ever women to do so, in 2017. The IJF’s commitment to gender equity continues to make great strides.
With all voting matters concluded and with the new appointments celebrated, the Congress was closed, leaving Mr Vizer the task of wishing all delegations a healthy and successful World Championships.
NEW IJF EC MEMBERS:
Mr VIZER Marius - President
Mr ROUGE Jean-Luc - General Secretary
Mr AL TAMIMI Naser - General Treasurer
Mr RANDRIANASOLONIAIKO Siteny - IJF Vice President, African Judo Union President
Mr SOLOVEYCHIK Sergey - IJF Vice President, European Judo Union President
Mr AL ANZI Obaid - IJF Vice President, Judo Union of Asia President
Mr DAVIO Rehia - IJF Vice President, Oceania Judo Union President
Mr ZEGARRA Carlos - IJF Vice President, Panamerican Judo Confederation President
Mr ABDULLAYEV Rovnag - Development Manager
Dr ALLAN Lisa - Events Director
Mr BAGDASAROV Armen - Refereeing Director
Mr BARTA Vladimir - Head Sport Director
Mr CASSINERIO Oscar - Development Director
Dr CORAK Sanda - Education Director
Mr JEON Ki Young - Head Referee Director
Mr HACHICHA Skander - Sport Director
Mrs KHISHIGBAT Erdenetod - World Promotion Director
Mr LASCAU Florin Daniel - Head Referee Director
Mr MERIDJA Mohamed - Education and Coaching Director
Mr ROTENBERG Arkady - Development Manager
Mr SISSOKO Habib - Development Director
Mrs SOUAKRI Salima - Development Director
Mr TAMURA Mike - Sport Director
Mr UEMURA Haruki - World Promotion Director
Mr YAMASHITA Yasuhiro - World Promotion Director
Mr ZHOU Jinqiang - Development Director
Mr RINER Teddy* - Chair of the Athletes Commission
*The Chair of the Athletes commission will be elected on June 10, 2021
Mr MARINESCU Vlad - IJF Director General