[제77차 세계보건기구(WHO) World Health Assembly건강총회(5월27일)에서 Bach IOC위원장 기조연설내용]
5월27일 스위스 제네바에서 개최된 2024년 제77차 연례세계보건기구(WHO)세계건강총회(World Health Assembly)에 기조연설자로 참석한(he delivered a keynote address) Bach IOC위원장은 스포츠의 중요한 역할을 “대중적 건강유지를 위해 특히 탁월한 저비용 고 영향 전달 도구”(low-cost high-impact tool par excellence for public health)라고 정의하면서 집중 조명하였다고 합니다.
같은 날 IOC와 WHO는 지난 2020년 5월 체결한 양자간의 협력 합의서(Cooperation Agreement)기간을 2025년 12월까지로 연장할 것임을 발표하였다고 합니다.
동협약서를 통하여 IOC와 WHO는 지속적인 개발목표 3/Sustainable Development Goal 3 (양질의 건강과 복지/Good health and well-being)에 입각하여 공유한 약속(shared commitment)인 스포츠를 통한 건강한 사회 만들기(promoting healthy society through sport)와 非 전염병 예방에 기여하고자 하는 두 항목 실행을 펼쳐 나아가기로 허였다고 합니다.
Bach IOC위원장은 “세계건강총회의 주제-“모두가 건강을, 건강을 모두에게”(The theme of this World Health Assembly – ‘All for Health, Health for All’)는 집단적 행동에 시의 적절한 촉구이며 글로벌 건강도전과제에 대하여 합심의 노력이 필요함. 스포츠세계는 건강증진과 복원력 회복을 도모하는 공동체들이 각지에서 함께 하는데 그 한 축으로 준비되어 있음”(The theme of this World Health Assembly – ‘All for Health, Health for All’ – is a timely call for collective action. Addressing global health challenges is a team effort. The world of sport is ready to be a part of this team to build healthy and resilient communities everywhere)이라고 설파하였다고 합니다.
이에 대하여 WHO 사무총장9Director General)인 Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus는 “본인은 Bach IOC위원장의 연설에서 언급한 우리의 파트너십에 전적으로 지지하는 바임: 귀하가 모든 것을 언급하였음”(I fully endorse President Bach’s remarks on our partnership: you have said it all) “우리가 몇 년 전 양해각서를 체결하였음으로 WHO와 IOC간의 파트너십은 괄목할 정도로 성장하여 왔음. 따라서 Bach IOC위원장의 리더십에 감사하는 바임”(Since we signed our MoU a few years ago, the partnership between WHO and the IOC has grown significantly, so thank you for your leadership, President Bach)이라고 응답하였다고 합니다.
WHO총회기간 중 Bach IOC위원장은 스위스연방 대표의원(Swiss Federal Councilor)인 Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani 아프리카연맹의장(Chairperson of the African Union), 2023년 노벨 생리학 및 의학상 수상자인(2023 Nobel Prize[1]winner in Physiology and Medicine) Katalin Karikó와 보츠와나 보건부장관(Minister of Health in Botswana)인 Edwin Dikoloti 그리고 IPC위원장인 Andrew Parsons 등과 접견하였다고 합니다.
[Bach IOC위원장 기조연설 전문(IOC President Thomas Bach’s Keynote Speech at 77th World Health Assembly Geneva, 27 May 2024)
Your Excellencies,
The power of the collaboration between WHO and the IOC is best illustrated by our different “Let’s Move” campaigns.
Already last year’s campaign exceeded our expectations.
When our next “Let’s Move” campaign kicks-off on Olympic Day, the 23rd of June, we will once again inspire people to move for health, getting millions of people around the globe to warm-up for the Olympic Games and celebrate the joy of sport.
This is why I invite also you to move, because sport keeps our mind and our body strong and healthy.
In this spirit, I would like to thank in particular the Director-General of the WHO, my dear friend Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, for the kind invitation to address you, the 77th World Health Assembly.
It is indeed a great honour to be here with you today.
Our meeting allows me to express my appreciation to everyone at the World Health Organization for your guidance, reassurance and support during the dark days of the pandemic.
The pandemic made it crystal clear how important sport is for our physical and mental health.
Sport can save lives.
Obesity, cardiovascular predispositions and other non-communicable diseases were the reasons for the vast majority of mortality during the pandemic.
For all these diseases and predispositions, sport is an excellent tool for prevention.
This is precisely what WHO and the IOC addressed through our joint campaigns like “HealthyTogether” or “Let’s Move” – getting millions of people to stay strong and active when life as we knew it ground to a halt.
Countless athletes stepped up to the fight against the virus, joining the pro-vaccination campaigns, working in hospitals, helping and comforting people, encouraging us to stay active and healthy – showing us that sport gives us hope.
A highlight of this athlete’s engagement was our digital Olympic workout, which in one single day introduced 500 million people around the globe to our joint campaign.
We took our cooperation to a new level when it came to organising two editions of Olympic Games during the pandemic.
It is no exaggeration to say that without the WHO, and in particular without our great friend Dr. Tedros, the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 would not have taken place in a safe way.
Thanks to the comprehensive countermeasures and vaccination programmes that we developed together with the WHO, we could make these Olympic Games safe for everyone – and without a single recorded transmission from the participants to host communities.
This is why it is also a great pleasure to see Professor Katalin Kariko here, who was at the origin of the vaccine development that we could all benefit from and I would like to thank her for this great contribution to humankind and in particular to the Olympic Games.
And I am very happy to have learned this morning that it was not your only contribution to the Olympic Movement – your daughter as a double Olympic champion is a great example of a healthy mind in a healthy body.
In Tokyo and Beijing, the athletes amazed us with their response to all the challenges, showing all of us the best that humankind can be, if we come together in peace, solidarity and unity of purpose.
This reaction of the athletes touched the hearts of billions of people around the world. If these Olympic Games would not have taken place, we would have a lost an entire generation of athletes.
This is why, in the name of all these Olympic athletes, and may I under the supervision of my dear friend, IPC President Andrew Parsons, also say the Paralympic athletes, I would like to thank you for standing by our side in these extremely difficult times.
Since then our partnership continues to go from strength to strength.
We continue to make sport available as the low-cost high-impact tool par excellence for public health.
As part of this effort, IOC and WHO are pioneering new ways of cooperating at the grassroots level, bringing together the expertise of both local health authorities and sport organisations.
Our aim is to facilitate access to community sport activities for over one million people. As part of this joint initiative, we are training coaches, teachers and community health workers of 500 different organisations.
We are doing so through innovative partnerships between National Olympic Committees, local health authorities and sports organisations at the community level.
This is why I would like to encourage you, for not to say, to urge you, to replicate this model of cooperation in your countries. Engage with your National Olympic Committee and your local sport organisations to integrate the low-cost high-impact tool of sport in your healthcare and education systems.
Looking further ahead, we see a great need for future cooperation with WHO to promote the health of refugees. It was encouraging to see the WHO including health of refugees and migrants in your most recent Global Action Plan.
For the IOC, our work to support refugees through sport is led by our Olympic Refuge Foundation.
The ambitious goal of the Foundation is to give access to safe sport to one million young people affected by displacement by the end of this year.
Probably the most emblematic symbol of our commitment to refugees is the IOC Refugee Olympic Team, which we created for the first time at the Olympic Games Rio 2016, and which will participate with a record number of refugee athletes at the forthcoming Olympic Games Paris 2024.
Through this extensive refugee work together with UNHCR, we are noticing that specialist organisations are realising the importance of sport to address mental health issues.
Just to give you one example: a recent independent study of our sport for mental health programme for refugees in Uganda showed that severe depression from participants who engaged in sport dropped from 57 per cent at the beginning to just 6 per cent at the completion of the programme.
The control group, which did not engage in sport, showed only a very modest drop in depression symptoms.
Seeing this, we extend our hand to you, the WHO and public health authorities, to work closely together for and with refugees.
Your Excellencies, the theme of this World Health Assembly “All for Health, Health for All” is a timely call for collective action. Addressing global health challenges is a team effort.
The world of sport is ready to be a part of this team to build healthy and resilient communities everywhere.
Therefore, speaking under the control of my friend Dr. Tedros, I for once will dare to suggest a humble addition to your well-selected theme today: “All for Health, Health for All... Sport for All”.
From our longstanding experience to put sport at the service of society, we know that we have to bring the health benefits of sport to where the people are – this means at the grassroots level, in local communities everywhere.
The Olympic Games Paris 2024 will demonstrate this in a spectacular way.
A programme introducing 30 minutes of daily exercise in primary school throughout France is on track to reach more than four million children.
Paris 2024 is promoting sport and physical activity in over 4,000 municipalities across France. All these efforts to bring sport to where the people are will culminate with the Marathon Pour Tous, the Marathon For All, when over 40,000 people will run the same marathon route just hours before the Olympic athletes.
But Paris is only the most visible aspect of our mission to make the world a better place through sport.
Through our partnership with the WHO, we are going to communities everywhere around the globe, bringing sport to all.
We all share the same objective: All for Health. Health for All. Sport for All.
To build healthy and resilient communities we have to act faster, aim higher, be stronger – and we have to join hands.
In this spirit, I invite all of you to truly live our Olympic motto: Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together.
