GAISF Fades Away, New Name for Giant Sports Association

GAISF PANEL/ GAISF meets for one last time before the name change to Sportaccord. (ATR) (ATR) One word will replace five as the General Association of International Sports Federations undergoes a streamlining of its name, confirmed on the final day of the Sportaccord convention in Denver Friday.

From now on GAISF is to be known as Sportaccord, taking on the name of the annual meeting launched by GAISF six years ago.

"We have done extensive research and considered a lot of names and couldn'tfind anything better than Sportaccord,"” president Hein Verbruggen tells Around the Rings.

“It says it all: Sport and accord. It worked very well in French, it worked very well in English. This is ideal.”

Verbruggen leads both the convention, as well as the international sports organization now represented by the Sportaccord brand. More than 100 international sports federations belong to Sportaccord, making it the largest organization of its kind.

While the GAISF General Assembly held in Denver this week was the 43rd for the organization, the Sportaccord convention began in 2003 in Madrid. Hein Verbruggen, Sportaccord president and chairman. (ATR/Panasonic:Lumix)

GAISF owns 45% of the company staging the event with the remainder is held by the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations and the Associoation of International Olympic Winter Federations.

Sportaccord will make Lausanne its headquarters for legal reasons, though it will retain a presence in Monte Carlo.

"We need a legal entity in Switzerland in order to hire staff," Verbruggen said.

In other news from the GAISF assembly:

An anti-doping staff position, funded partly by the IOC and WADA, is being created to support compliance with the WADA code among member organizations.

The International Golf Federation is the newest Sportaccord member, one of the seven sports vying for addition to the 2016 Games. "That's a very important sport that was missing," said Verbruggen. IGF leader Ty Votaw tells ATR the vote confirms that the federation belongs to the international sport family.

The first Martial Arts Games will be held in Beijing, Sep. 6-13 in 2010. Verbruggen said London 2012 CEO Paul Deighton reporting to GAISF. (ATR)he hopes the collaboration by 13 federations will be the first of many micro-Games.

“"We like to have the international federations working together on these projects, that's a service we're going to give them, that they start owning events through GAISF," said Verbruggen.

GAISF meets again under the Sportaccord brand April 30, 2010 in Dubai. Verbruggen said negotiations are underway to host the 2011 convention in London.

He reiterated his plan to retire when his term ends that year.

"We have to look for a successor that takes it up," he said. In the coming two years we have time to do it carefully.”

News from Sportaccord proudly presented by Rio 2016.

See all Sportaccord coverage here.

With reporting from click here.

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