Panel discussion “Tokyo 2020 – Prospects and Challenges“
The Provincial Secretariat for Sports and Youth organized a panel discussion titled “Tokyo 2020 – Prospects and Challenges” at the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education in Novi Sad on 29 September 2016, at which the Provincial Secretary for Sports and Youth Vladimir Batez called sports institutions and sports experts to work together to improve the sport system in Vojvodina and stressed the need to continue work on the establishment of a consistent system of sport all over the Republic, Province and local self-authorities.
The panel discussion “Tokyo 2020 – Prospects and Challenges” was organized in order to make a step forward in defining the priorities of financing the activities of provincial branch sports associations aimed at the participation of a larger number of athletes at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, as well as the need for establishing new programs and projects aimed at improving conditions for achieving top results of sportsmen and sportswomen from Vojvodina in Olympic and non-Olympic sports. In addition, the theme of the panel discussion was the analysis of the role of local self-governments in achieving top results, the motivation of local self-governments for specific measures to support the athletes, and the opportunities for financing programs in the field of sport through EU funds.
Assistant Provincial Secretary Aranka Binder, who has had experienced five and a half Olympic cycles in her professional career, which means a twenty-two-year period spent in the qualifications, preparation and participation in competitions, stressed the importance of the timely start of serious preparations and underlined that the preparations for Tokyo have already started and lasted for more than a month since the Olympics in Brazil finished. Assistant Binder presented to the participants the Sport development programme in Vojvodina from 2016 to 2018 and the Action Plan for its implementation, which should soon be on the agenda of the provincial assembly. The program is the result of active work in which, in order to obtain a quality text, the Provincial Institute of Sport and Sports Medicine, higher education institutions, representatives of local self-governments and representatives of provincial branch sports associations were also involved.
“Following these discussions, the secretariat will work on the text of the Rulebook of financing programs and projects in the field of sport and of the Rulebook on the financing of promising athletes and promising coaches in Vojvodina. During the preparation of both documents it is important to have a dialogue with athletes, coaches and experts. This dialogue has to have continuity because the process of improving the sport system is not limited by time and because there is a need for constant adjustment to new knowledge and new circumstances”, said Vladimir Batez.
The views on the possibilities and challenges of preparing for the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020 were also presented by the Dean of the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education of the University of Novi Sad Prof. Dejan Mladic PhD, Director of the Provincial Institute of Sport and Sports Medicine, and Director of the European Affairs Fund of AP Vojvodina, Sinisa Lazic.
