Presentation of SAMBO at the AIPS Congress - Seoul, South Korea

The International Federation of Sports Press (AIPS) unites 143 national sports press federations. The AIPS is a partner of the International Olympic Committee. The AIPS Congress gathered representatives of 120 counties of the world in the capital of South Korea. The names of the guests also bespoke of the importance of the international sports press gathering. International federations of gymnastics (FIG) and athletics (IAAF) presented their plans and ideas. The organising committees of the Olympic Games in Sochi and London reported their progress to the international media. The bids committees of the 2018 Olympic Games: Annecy (France), Pyeongchang (South Korea) and Munich (Germany) tried to impress the journalists with the advantages of their bids. The Students' Sports Federations (FISU) presented the upcoming University Games in Shenzhen (2011), Kazan (2013), Gwangju (2015), respectively. The presentation of the FIAS at such a representative gathering was not an easy task. We had to not only introduce the world sports press to SAMBO, but also to impress them, befriend them and lay the groundwork for our future joint work. Therefore we have counted on making an impression, on emotional involvement. The friendly tone of the FIAS President Vasily Shestakov speech, bright video presentation, spectacular exhibition performance, humorous sketch presenting implementation of SAMBO in everyday life, on a street, defending from hooligans, all these made strong impression, stirred interest towards SAMBO. It was hard to avoid noticing lots of laugh and smiles during the presentation; remarks from the female part of the Congress attendees have been heard, saying what a beautiful men are practising SAMBO. The official meeting between the FIAS President Vasily Shestakov and the AIPS President Mr. Gianni Merlo was dedicated to discussion of the issues of potential. Over its course a decision has been reached to sign in the April of this year a cooperation and collaboration agreement between the AIPS and the FIAS. The main directions of our joint activities have been decided upon: creation of the AIPS commission for SAMBO, formation of the media pool at the FIAS, participation of the AIPS representatives in SAMBO sports events, establishing interraction between national sports media associations and national SAMBO federations and so on. A question of work groups, dedicated to improving the quality of informational technologies at SAMBO competitions, has been discussed. In short, the meeting of SAMBO world with international sports media guild was a success. Now we are looking forward to dedicated work in creating comfortable professional conditions for journalists work in SAMBO, first of all, at SAMBO competitions. FIAS Press Service