2009 SU Update: FISU Conference – Day 2

Yesterday, July 2nd, the FISU Conference took off with some interesting presentations.

Prof. Wendy Brown from the University of Queensland, Australia, gave an inspiring speech about how university sport could provide a foundation for healthy life. In conclusion she wants that universities could become more effective in creating a cultural change in which the importance of physical activities could be stressed.

Prof. Bingshu Zhang from the Beijing Sport University hoped that practitioners and scholars from different academic backgrounds and from different nations should work together to probe the problems, potential and possibilities of university sport in the twenty-first century.

The oral presentations in the afternoon focused on trends, opportunities, and challenges for university sport as well as a foundation for healthy lifestyle and for fair-play and ethical value.

The second day of the Conference started with a very inspiring lecture of Prof. Jean-François Toussaint from France about the evolution of records and the limitations of the human body. His well documented presentation with an impressive number of data illustrated that starting at 75% of their asymptotic values in 1896, world records have now reached 99% and, present conditions prevailing, half of all world records will not be improved by more than 0.05% in 2027.

Prof. Albrecht Claessens from Belgium spoke about the body composition in athletes and how this can influence athletic performance.

After the coffee break Allison Odell gave the floor to Iris Olbeiding, a student from Germany (ADH) who won the FISU Women’s Committee Award. She explained shortly the ‘Tandem Project’ she and her team elaborated in order to help women to become more experienced in managing sport.

Prof. Jeno Kamuti, President of the International Fair Play Committee, former Olympic and Universiade medallist in fencing, gave some thoughts about Fair-Play. ‘What does Fair-Play mean?’ was his first question. Was it born together with a human being? Has it always been there? Does everyone understands the same always and everywhere in these words? The answer is no. In conclusion he referred to IOC President Jacques Rogge who said: ‘There is more than crossing the line first to make someone a winner!’

The morning session closed with Prof. Luc Silance from Belgium who spoke about ‘Tendencies and Innovations in University Sport’. After his presentation an interesting exchange of ideas started between the audience and some of the speakers of the morning session.

The oral presentations in the afternoon were clustered around University Sport: a foundation for education and academic achievement; a foundation for sustainable universal development.

The poster session opened in the late afternoon. – Jan Boutmans

Dr. Jeno Kamuti