At the recent 23rd European Fair Play Congress, held in Haifa, NOC Secretary General Gilad Lustig and Olympism project manager Hilla Davidov were awarded the World Fair Play Diploma for the category “Promotion of Fair Play”, in recognition of the exemplary achievement of the Israeli project “Promotion of Fair Play” in the world of sport, which involved 6,000 children from a hundred schools. The diploma was presented by IFPC President Jeno Kamuthy.

Attended by 110 representatives from 25 European national fair play organizations, the Haifa Congress focused on the topic “Sports as a Tool for Reconciliation”, and was co-hosted by the European Fair Play Movement, the Olympic Committee of Israel, the Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Academic College at Wingate and the Municipality of Haifa on 24 and 25 October.

Eytan Barak, a representative of the Olympic Committee of Israel and the Israeli member of the EFPM opened the two-day working sessions while the keynote speakers included Prof John Sugden, University of Brighton, Prof Halina Zdebska-Biziewska and Dr. Yotam Lurie from Ben-Gurion University. Ms Ankie Spitzer, widow of the Israeli Olympic fencing coach Andrei Spitzer, who was killed at the 1972 Munich Olympics, gave an inspiring talk about the need for reconciliation.

An interesting figure that created great excitement among the participants who attended the EFP Congress was Miroslav Cerar, a Slovenian gymnast and lawyer who won the pommel horse event at the 1964 and 1968 Summer Olympics. He also won three World and nine European championships. Miroslav was a member of the Slovenian Olympic Academy, the Fair Play Commission of the Slovenian Olympic Committee, and the Executive Committee of the European Fair Play Movement.

Photo: EFPM President Austrian Christian Hinterberger, Miroslav Cerar, Gilad Lustig, Hilla Davidov, Jeno Kamuthy