Panathlon International Board Member Patrick Van Campenhout has been elected President of the European Wushu Federation (IWUF).
He also acts as chairman of Panathlon International's Expansion Commission and actively participates in the PI's Erasmus projects. Many congratulations on this well-deserved recognition.
The annual Forum on Sport and Human Rights will be organised by the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) in cooperation with the Data Protection Unit.
This forum will aim at creating an exchange between specialists from different fields, addressing emerging human rights challenges in a sport context, enabling closer cooperation and exploring avenues for further action. It will be structured around four themes focusing on performance analysis and predictive technologies, international information exchange, personal data in anti-doping, facial recognition and crowd control.
Panathlon International will attend this event online.
The PI International Board held its meeting on 15 and 16 June.
Among the items on the Agenda, the International Board decided to postpone the date of the next General Elective Assembly and International Congress, scheduled to take place in Agrigento, to 15-16 June 2024 (due to European Elections on the previous weekend).
It discussed and also approved: the revision of the "Sports Categories" for which a Commission was appointed, composed of the International President, the General Secretary, and International Board members Giorgio Chinellato and Patrick Van Campenhout; the Regulations for the constitution of the "Roll of Honour of the Ambassadors of Sport" to introduce PI to the world together with its values and aims; the "Regulations of Clubs/Areas/Districts Godfathers" to assign a symbolic recognition to those who try to constitute new Clubs.
Within the reflections that emerged from the working group for the 'Savings Commission' created specifically to analyse possible savings in administrative management, it was decided: to send the next issue of the Magazine online; to confirm the sending of promotional material to Clubs until the end of 2023; to hold the next meetings online, except for the Pan-American Congress in Guayaquil (ECU), together with the District Presidents' Committee and the last IB in 2023. Special thanks go to the District of Ecuador, which was willing to partially support the hospitality for the members of the International Bodies and all the expenses for the realisation of the meetings (rooms, equipment, and simultaneous translation).
Finally, the IB applauded the possible establishment of a new Club in the City of Cordoba, Argentina, which will allow the District to be reconstituted.
The relevant resolutions will be translated (FR/IT/EN), as usual, and sent to the Board members, District Presidents and Governors, as well as being posted on the PI website.

Panathlon International has been invited on June 8th to participate in the Blue Economy Summit organised by One Ocean in the prestigious Aula Magna of Bocconi University in Milan.
The participation to the Congress, very interesting and of very high level, has been the occasion to confirm the commitment of our Organization for the safeguard of seas, oceans and waters also through sport.
As you may recall, in fact, PI signed a cooperation agreement with One Ocean for the promotion and dissemination of the "Charta Smeralda", for which a new project was launched last March involving all our Clubs.
On behalf of PI was present the Secretary General Simona Callo who, together with the Vice President of the Panathlon Club of Mestre Marta De Manincor, followed the stimulating debates with international speakers.
The President's Committee of PI was held on 6 June. Among the items on the agenda, in addition to an update on the latest activities carried out by the President and the General Secretariat, they discussed the programme for the Pan-American Congress in Guayaquil (ECU), a topic that will be further discussed at the next International Board (Thursday 15 and Friday 16 June - on-line). During the meeting, the reflections that emerged from the working group for the Savings Commission set up specifically to analyse possible savings were also presented.
Particular attention was paid to the criteria of Good Governance established by the IOC, which must be respected by Panathlon International to remain in the Olympic family (among them an external audit and the establishment of the Ethics Commission).
Finally, the PC has prepared the "Regulation of Clubs/Areas/Districts Godfathers" drafted with the aim of awarding a symbolic recognition to those who undertake to create new Clubs.
The relevant resolutions will, as always, be sent to the International Board Members, District Presidents, and Governors, and can be viewed on the PI website.

On Saturday 27th May the PI Club Vercelli visited the International Headquarters of Panathlon International. The members accompanied by the Governor Maurizio Nasi, member of the Club, and by the President of the Club Vercelli Agostino Gabotti have been received by the Secretary General Simona Callo together with the staff of the General Secretariat, by the President of District Italy Giorgio Costa and by the President of Panathlon International Club Rapallo - Golfo Paradiso Adelindo Molinari.
As President Pierre Zappelli said, Clubs are invited to visit the General Secretariat, the home of every panathlete, to see the beautiful Headquarters and learn more about the activities of the General Secretariat. The Club of Vercelli enthusiastically accepted the invitation!
The beautiful day then offered visitors the chance to take a tour of Rapallo and the surrounding area.
As of June 12th, “Panathlon Day” will be celebrated all over the world. An initiative promoted to remember that on June 12th, 1951, this sports volunteer organization was born in Venice.
On the 72nd anniversary of Foundation Day, we invite all clubs to promote initiatives and events to celebrate this special day and to remember what values Panathlon was founded on: friendship, sporting ethics, passion, and fair play.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) welcomes the reference to sport in the Group of Seven (G7) Leaders’ Statement on Ukraine, which they issued during their summit in Hiroshima, Japan. The statement says that the G7 are “fully respecting the autonomy of sporting organizations” and want to ensure that “Russian and Belarusian athletes are in no way appearing as representatives of their states”. This is fully aligned with the position of the IOC in this respect.
The Bancarella Sport Award celebrates its 60th anniversary and kick-starts the famous writing competition by announcing the six shortlisted finalist books that, next 15 July, will compete for the coveted blurb band that will be awarded by the votes of a large judging panel. The competing books are: “Chris Amon. La sfortuna non esiste” by Emiliano Tozzi (Minerva), “Giuliano Giuliani, più solo di un portiere” by Paolo Tomaselli (66thand2nd), “Le nuove guerre del calcio. Gli affari delle corporation e la rivolta dei tifosi” by Marco Bellinazzo (Feltrinelli), “Un gioco da ragazzi” by Bruno Conti with Gianmarco Menga (Rizzoli), “Una squadra” by Domenico Procacci (Fandango), and “Una vita in alto” by Sara Simeoni with Marco Franzelli (Rai libri).
The journey of the six finalists, winners of the Premio Selezione, toward the Bancarella Sport award ceremony will start in the next few days. The first of the two events organised by Panathlon International will be the presentation of the six finalists, in Lucca, on May 15. A second event will take place in Portofino on June 15. The closing ceremony in Pontremoli will also celebrate the second Panathlon Book Prize that, this year, has been awarded to Massimo Calandri, author of the book “Non puoi fidarti di gente così. Storia della squadra di rugby che sfidò l’apartheid” published by Mondadori; on the same occasion, the winner of the nineteenth Bruno Raschi Award will be announced.
Panathlon International – Domenico Chiesa Foundation, in agreement with Fédération Internationale Cinéma Télévision Sportifs (FICTS), has extended the registration deadline for the Video Competition “SPORT, MOUNTAIN & OLYMPISM – SNOW & ICE SPORTS”, in the framework of the «41st SPORT MOVIES & TV – Milano International FICTS Fest», “Shorts” section: the new registration deadline is now 10 September 2023.
Participating is easy: you just need to complete the registration form and send your video via WeTransfer to the address specified in the Competition Rules.
We look forward to lots of registrations!



