First, he spoke warmly with the legend of Austrian gymnastics, Heide Bruneder, with whom he had a long-standing friendship and numerous joint projects in the field of gymnastics. Mr. Watanabe personally thanked Heide Bruneder for her contribution to the development of European gymnastics, which she has made since 1982 as ÖFT Federal Specialist for Rhythmic Gymnasticstics and as President of European Gymnastics as well as one of the initiators of the Grand Prix World Series.
It is well known that the president of the FIG, Morinari Watanabe, will be running for the office of IOC president to replace Thomas Bach, who is leaving after twelve years. The election of the IOC president is scheduled for March next year at the session in Greece. On The 17Th In September, the IOC announced that seven people had officially submitted their candidacy. The president of the International Gymnastics Federation, Watanabe, is the first Japanese to apply for the office of IOC president. The 65-year-old Watanabe comes from the city of Kitakyushu in southwestern Japan. In 2017 he was elected president of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG). He was the first Japanese in 22 years to head an international sports organization. He has also been an IOC member since 2018. Other candidates are: the president of the Olympic Committee of Jordan, Prince Faisal Al-Hussein, the president of the World Athletics Federation, Sebastian Coe from Great Britain, the executive board member of the IOC, Kirsty Coventry from Zimbabwe, the president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), Johan Eliasch from Great Britain, the president of the World Cycling Federation UCI, David Lappartient from France, and the IOC vice president Antoni Samaranch from Spain. Samaranch’s father was IOC president. Of the nine previous IOC presidents, eight came from Europe and one from the USA.
In view of Mr. Watanabe’s international reputation in world sport, it was all the more important that he personally participated in the award ceremony of the Club World Championship Competition of Rhythmic Gymnastics, the AEON Cup 2024. Austria was represented at the World Cup by the club ASVO. The Austrian delegation was led by Turnsport-Austria Vice President Annires Marchetti, who worked as ASVO-RG federal representative and referee. In the club’s team, Dina Mironskaya once again confirmed her position as leader of the Austrian national team in rhythmic gymnastics on an international level. Dina appeared confidently at the AEON Cup in Tokyo and showed her best performance of 28.950 points in the Reifenkür for the first time. In the overall classification of the club qualification, the Austrian team took 7th place. Place.
Many well-known female athletes participated in the tournament, including participants of the recently held Olympic Games, such as Alina Harnasko, Fanni Pigniczki, Anastasiia Salos, Panna Weiszner, as well as participants of the winning clubs of 2023, including Lada Pusch, Anastasiia Simakova, Taisiya Onofriychuk, Khrystyna Pohranychna, Milena Baldassarri, Sofia Raffaeli, Rich Khez, Megan Chu.
by Stepan Lendyel