{"id":24,"date":"2008-09-14T13:16:55","date_gmt":"2008-09-14T20:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/?p=24"},"modified":"2008-12-17T15:28:48","modified_gmt":"2008-12-17T22:28:48","slug":"peace-building-through-olympic-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/?p=24","title":{"rendered":"Peace Building Through Olympic Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhere are you from?\u201d is the question asked most often during the Sport Management Seminar for Women, organized by the International Academy of Sports Science and Technology (aiSTS)<\/a> based in Lausanne, Switzerland.\u00a0 My geographical ignorance is apparent when I hear answers like \u201cLesotho\u201d \u201cQatar\u201d and \u201cBelize,\u201d and then must ask, \u201cWhere\u2019s that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lausanne is located on the North Shore of Lake Geneva.\u00a0 The lake is surrounded by the jagged Alps winding through France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.\u00a0 Sailboats, water skiers and graceful swans dot the giant lake during the warmer months.\u00a0 Stately old Victorian looking buildings fill Lausanne where most of the people speak French.<\/p>\n

Besides being a beautiful place, Lausanne is considered the sports capital of the world.\u00a0 It\u2019s the home of the Olympic International Committee (IOC), dozens of other sport federations, is host to Ahletissima, a world-class track and field competition, and other sport events.<\/p>\n

Eighty people registered for aiSTS\u2019s fourth annual seminar on management skills for women held September 1 \u2013 4, 2008.\u00a0 Most of the participants are women who work for their country\u2019s Olympic Committees.\u00a0 The women represent fifty different countries including Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Croatia, Ghana, China, Taiwan, Guatemala, Denmark, Iceland, Mali, Ghana, Belize, Fiji, Slovenia, Aruba, Zimbabwe. Czech Republic, Qatar, Nigeria, and Spain. It is the first time in my life I am ever with so many people from different countries all at the same time.<\/p>\n

The seminar participants share an interest in sports and equality for women competing in and governing sporting events.\u00a0 Dr. June Canavan, a well-respected sports doctor from Australia, opened the seminar with an inspiring presentation showing the history and hurtles that women have faced in the sports world.\u00a0 At the conclusion of her talk I have the urge to stand up and applaud!<\/p>\n

aiSTS was founded by people from different areas including the International Olympic Committee, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, IMD Business School, University of Lausanne, University of Geneva, University of Neuch\u00e2tel, IDHEAP (an independent foundation associated with the University of Lausanne and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) HES Valais (University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland), Lausanne City and Canton of Vaud.\u00a0 aiSTS is a graduate program that provides a masters degree on sport program and event management.\u00a0 Claude Stricker is director of aiSTS.\u00a0 Claude\u2019s interest in sports comes from his life long pursuit of athletics.\u00a0 As a teenager he was on the Swiss national ski patrol; he is a skilled windsurfer; and is an all around fit athlete.<\/p>\n

Over ten years ago we met out windsurfing at Diamond Head on O\u2018ahu where I live.\u00a0 Diamond Head is a popular windsurfing spot, especially during the summer when there are south swells.\u00a0 One morning I am riding a wave toward the beach and a guy windsurfing past me out toward the waves, leans around his mast and yells something to me.\u00a0 It takes a few moments before I realize that he said: \u201cLorenn, wife of Jim.\u201d<\/p>\n

A couple days earlier, my husband Jim told me he\u2019d met a “Swiss guy” at the University of Hawai\u2018i who also liked to windsurf Diamond Head where I was going to practice for windsurfing contests.\u00a0 Claude was in Hawai\u2018i doing research and windsurfing.\u00a0 During the 1990s, both he and I competed in the same windsurfing contests.\u00a0 In 2007 he asked me to come to Lausanne and provide training on conflict management at the 2008 seminar.\u00a0 In his kind French accent he said: \u201cLorenn you must come to the seminar because you are an athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is one of the seminar\u2019s sponsors.\u00a0 The IOC provided 38 women with scholarships to attend the seminar where we learn about each others lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is it like living in Zimbabwe?\u201d
\n\u201cIt\u2019s terrible.\u00a0 We cannot buy food,\u201d we hear at lunch from a woman living in Zimbabwe.\u00a0 A woman from South Africa is compassionate toward her Zimbabwean neighbor despite the recent problems between some residents of the two countries.<\/p>\n

Other women whose countries are also at odds with each other including China and Taiwan, South and North Korea, the United States and Iran, share similar understandings after being together for the four days of the seminar.<\/p>\n

Icelandic participant Jo\u2019na Hilder Bjarnadottir, who works with her country\u2019s Olympic committee, said: \u201cHearing the other women\u2019s experiences in their countries, working in their homes and their cultures made me stronger and more emotional.\u00a0 It helps me see my situation is not so bad.\u201d\u00a0 She also said \u201cWe can come home and do something with woman power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nada Cerna with the Ceska Olympic Committee found that the seminar \u201crefreshed and inspired\u201d her.\u00a0 She especially appreciated that it was held in Lausanne.\u00a0 It was a \u201cdream state\u201d she said.\u00a0 She also found the workshop as a whole \u201cempowerful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nigerian participant Joy Ewomazino Oyibo said: \u201cI loved the organization.\u00a0 The workshop organization was well designed and carried out.\u00a0 aisTS knows how to prepare things well.\u201d\u00a0 Clare Lobb with the IOC said she found: \u201cThe variety of topics was great.\u00a0 I learned a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The seminar brought women of diverse cultures together where they came to understand they are all working for similar things and facing similar challenges.\u00a0 They learned from each other.\u00a0 The seminar had the effect of peace building and illustrates how sports and Olympic programs can help improve our world.\u00a0 It was clearly an “empowerful” experience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Claude Stricker and I at the Olympic Museum.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Seminar participants with their certificates of completion closing night of seminar.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Seminar participants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhere are you from?\u201d is the question asked most often during the Sport Management Seminar for Women, organized by the International Academy of Sports Science and Technology (aiSTS) based in Lausanne, Switzerland.\u00a0 My geographical ignorance is apparent when I hear answers like \u201cLesotho\u201d \u201cQatar\u201d and \u201cBelize,\u201d and then must ask, \u201cWhere\u2019s that?\u201d Lausanne is located on the North Shore of Lake Geneva.\u00a0 The lake is surrounded by the jagged Alps winding through France, Germany, Italy… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}