The European Olympic Committees (EOC) is excited for the start of the 41^st EOC Seminar, which gets under way tomorrow at the X-Bionic Hotel in Samorin, Slovakia.

Representatives from all 50 European National Olympic Committees (ENOCs) are expected to attend the two-day hybrid seminar, either in person or online.

It will be the first EOC Seminar for Spyros Capralos in his role as EOC President, having been elected to the role this summer in Athens.

President Capralos and EOC General Secretary Raffaele Pagnozzi have initiated a number of changes to the Seminar designed to make it more interactive and beneficial for all participants.

One measure was to invite all ENOCs to bring members of their personnel to Samorin who are responsible for running the day-to-day affairs of the organisation. The belief is that the staff handling such issues on a daily basis are critical to the knowledge-sharing process and eventual implementation of best practices across Europe.

“While preparing for the Seminar, we agreed that it must be a true source of knowledge for the NOCs of Europe and a place where the very best practices are exchanged between us,” Capralos said. “With that in mind, this year we have continued to modernize the seminar and increase the interactivity while introducing topics that we believe are of greatest interest and concern to the NOCs of Europe.”

The topics of the panel discussions, will be conducted in a fireside chat format, were chosen based on input from the delegates that attended the last Seminar, held in Vienna in 2019. These include the prevention of manipulation of sport competitions, the 2030 EOC Strategic Agenda, and how European Union projects can support the NOCs and EOC sports events.

A conversation will also be held on the marketing and digitization projects the EOC is currently developing to create greater revenue streams for the EOC and ENOCs.

In addition, participants will hear from representatives from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Olympic Solidarity Programmes, Tokyo 2020, Paris 2024 (with a focus on sustainability), and the upcoming Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.

One of the highlights of the Seminar will be the crowning of the winner of the 2021 Piotr Nurowski “Best Summer European Young Athlete” Prize. The five finalists will be formally presented by EOC Athletes’ Chair Gerd Kanter ahead of tomorrow’s elections, with the winner being named at a Gala Dinner later in the day.

The five richly deserving finalists are: Sky Brown from Great Britain (skateboarding), Adriana Cerezo Iglesias from Spain (taekwondo), Viktoria Listunova from Russia (artistic gymnastics), David Popovici from Romania (swimming), and Adriana Vilagos from Serbia (athletics). Learn more about each of them on the EOC website.

An EOC Executive Committee meeting is scheduled to take place ahead of Day 2 of the Seminar on Friday 26 November, with the 41^st EOC Seminar set to conclude that afternoon.