Surfing in Athens
Fernando Aguerre at GAISF Sport Accord 2008

The President of the International Surfing Association –ISA-, Fernando Aguerre went to the biggest institutional sport event of the world, GAISF Sport Accord. The international convention of sports took place from June 2 to 6 at the Hilton Hotel in Athens, Greece.

The convention brings representatives from the 100 International Sports Federations affiliated to GAISF (General Association of International Sports Federations), ASOIF (Association of Summer Olympic International Federations) and AIOWF (Association of the International Olympic Winter Sports Federations), as well as the International Olympic Committee Executive Board, together with sponsors, bidding and host cities, architects, sports lawyers, broadcasters, games organising committees, rights holders and other specialists to discuss the key issues facing the sports industry.

During five days, the most important representatives of world wide sports, including directors, athletes and people related to sports, met in the same place to define the future of Olympic sports.

For the first time, the president of the ISA, Fernando Aguerre, went there in the name of the federation. The ISA is recognized by the IOC and the GAISF. After five hard-working days of meetings and workshops, Aguerre came back as he said: “Exhausted, but very happy”.

He added: “I’ve realised that sports world has changed a lot in the last five years, the Olympic staff is now open to sports like surfing. I went there to meet as many people as I could and, luckily, I realised that what we are asking, for extreme sports to be considered as Olympic sports, is received with joy for the Olympic movement”.

“We surfers have something pretty good, quite a fine sport which is admired by many people. We are really close to achieving our goal, that dream that Duke had, when in 1920 he asked for surfing to be include in the Olympics. We are focused on making that dream a reality in 2020, a hundred years later the father of modern surfing had that wish”, finished Aguerre.

Thanks to technological advances in the building of wave parks, the new opinion of the International Olympic Committee and the effort of ISA, it is now possible to think that in the near future we would be able to see the best surfers of the world in the Olympic Games fighting for a medal.

It’s just a matter of time and hard work that the ISA is willing to do.

To get more information about Sport Accord click here: http://www.sportaccord.com/

About International Surfing Association
The International Surfing Association (ISA) is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the World Governing Authority for surfing, bodyboarding and surfriding. It was originally founded as the International Surfing Federation in 1964 and has been running world championships since 1964 and the Junior World Championships since 1980. 

ISA membership includes the surfing National Governing Bodies (NGBs) of over 50 countries on six continents. Its headquarters are located in San Diego, California. It is presided by Fernando Aguerre, first elected in 1994 in Rio, and re-elected six times since.  The ISA's four Vice Presidents are Alan Atkins (Australia), Robin de Kock (South Africa), Maile Aguerre (Hawaii) and Mike Gerard (USA).

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