Dear Colleagues,
Dear Friends,
I hope you are suitably refreshed after the festive period and have enjoyed a fruitful start to the New Year.
Unfortunately, earlier this month we received the very sad news of the passing of one of our most well-respected and distinguished members of the European Olympic family, Andrzej Kraśnicki.
Andrzej was a true friend to myself and my fellow members of the EOC Executive Committee (ExCom), on which he served so diligently in an Ex-Officio capacity. His visionary leadership of the Polish Olympic Committee was instrumental in the huge success of the European Games Kraków-Małopolska 2023, for which we will all be forever grateful.
Andrzej was an outstanding sports leader and an example to us all. He will be greatly missed, and our thoughts remain with his family at this time.
It is of course a hugely exciting year for the EOC and in a week’s time we will be in Bakuriani, Georgia for the start of the 17th Winter European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF).
We are proud of the unique role that the EYOF provides in enabling our continent’s talented young athletes aged from 14 to 18 to experience a multi-sport event and embrace the Olympic values.
I am grateful to the Organising Committee and everyone who has contributed to the preparations for Bakuriani 2025, and I am looking forward to witnessing another spectacular edition of the EYOF.
We have a very busy month ahead at the EOC with preparations also progressing well for the 54th EOC General Assembly in Frankfurt, Germany from 28 February to 1 March.
This will feature the elections for President, Vice President, Secretary General, Treasurer and of a new EOC ExCom. It means that Raffaele Pagnozzi’s long and outstanding tenure as EOC Secretary General will come to a conclusion and I look forward to paying tribute to him in Frankfurt.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to all of the current ExCom members for their dedication and support over the last four years.
I hope to catch up with you all in Bakuriani and Frankfurt.
With EurOlympic regards,
President Spyros Capralos
