General Association of International Sport Federations (GAISF) Assembly in Denver, Colorado

Denver boasts to have the biggest airport in the USA, gets 300 days of sunshine per year, has the biggest and most up to date soccer complex in the world- Dick's Sporting Goods Park is the 18,000 seat home of Major League Soccer’s Colorado Rapids.

President Donalda Ammons represented the ICSD at the general assembly of the GAISF in Denver on Friday, 27 March.

The General Assembly of the General Association of the International Sports Federations (GAISF) shaped up as a momentous occasion with some big decisions on the agenda that transformed the future of the organization.

GAISF President Hein Verbruggen believed that the time has come for GAISF to reinvent itself and develop a global strategy to leverage sport unity and better face today's sports challenges.

  1. Re-naming to SportAccord to develop a stronger corporate identity and through unity and synergies, the world of sport will be stronger when tackling global challenges together.
  2. Reinforcing its members ‘position by uniting and supporting them, while fully recognizing the authority of IOC and the Olympic Movement and remaining a loyal partner in the achievement of the Olympic Movement’s objectives.
  3. GAISF in collaboration with WADA, and with the support of the IOC, is now working on developing support services for its members on anti-doping matters. This would be real practical services designed to help member federations comply with the WADA Code.

Source: www.sportcentric.com/vsite/vcontent/page/custom/0,8510,5148-180226-197444-39002-259654-custom-item,00.html

The General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) announced the upcoming launch of a number of anti-doping services to support International Federations (IFs), with the full support and collaboration of WADA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

As announced to its Assembly General on March 27 in Denver, USA, GAISF will provide centralized anti-doping advice, support and services to IFs that may need them, with the objective of ensuring that they implement and enforce anti-doping rules and programs in compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code. It will operate from Lausanne, Switzerland. The IOC and WADA will contribute toward costs. GAISF will hire an anti-doping manager who should be operational and provide expert advice and services in the coming months.

"The IOC is happy to support this cooperative effort to help International Sports Federations fight doping," said IOC President Jacques Rogge. "We have to work together to rid sport of cheaters. The IOC is more than ever committed to that effort and welcomes this new initiative".

"Through unity and synergies, we believe that the world of sport will be stronger when tackling global challenges together," added GAISF President Hein Verbruggen. "Anti-doping is a major issue for IFs today, and organizing together the fight against doping will enable us to reduce costs and administrative burden on IFs. This is one of GAISF's commitments: better service and support our members."

"As the monitor of the global fight against doping in sport and the guardian of the World Anti-Doping Code, WADA is very pleased to contribute to the establishment of this anti-doping support for IFs," said WADA's Director General David Howman. "Over the past four years, WADA has successfully experienced a similar collective resource approach with the establishment of Regional Anti-Doping Organizations in regions of the world with limited resources. This model has allowed the implementation of anti-doping programs in numerous regions with significant economies of scale. We are looking forward to starting to work with GAISF on this matter."

By Donalda Ammons