An IFMA Members Workshop was held during the Kids and Junior World Championships, organised around three topics. The workshop was organised in cooperation with SportAccord, who sent representative Natalie Mills from the SportAccord Doping Free Sport Unit to address the National Federations. A third special guest was Pernilla Johansson from the Frysbox Project and Swedish Muaythai Federation.
The first topic was “IF/NF Responsibilities and Goals” presented by IFMA General Secretary Stephan Fox, who opened the event.
After a brief video presentation about IFMA, the General Secretary moved on to cover topics such as IFMA’s place in SportAccord, its participation in multi-sports Games, Muaythai values, IFMA’s stakeholders, and strategic goals.
Preserving tradition and cultural heritage while becoming ever more global and continuing to hold a strong media presence are part of IFMA’s strategy. Giving back by practicing social responsibility, ensuring fairplay through anti-doping measures and continued standardization of referee and judging, are also high on IFMA’s priority list.
The General Secretary closed his presentation by emphasizing the role of youth development, treasuring, training and building the next generation. Most importantly, he stated: “No respect, no survival.” The cornerstone values of Muaythai, respect, tradition, excellence, fairplay and honour are the strengths which IFMA can continue to build on.
The workshop was attended by the national federation and athletes participating in the Championships, as well as representatives from the Female Commission, Technical Commission and Medical Commission, members of the Turkish press and local officials.
Keep an eye out for Part 2: “Prevention Through Education” by Natalie Mills, Project Manager – Doping Free Sport Unit (DFSU) SportAccord
and Part 3: “Sport Is Your Gang: Frysbox Project and Building a SIYG Project in Your Home Country”, by Pernilla Johansson, Frysbox Project Sweden and Samara Yawnghwe, Social Projects, IFMA.
