Hickey will focus on youth as EOC president

IRELAND’s Patrick Hickey vowed to put youth at the forefront when he was unanimously elected president of the European Olympic Committees (EOC) at an extraordinary session of the EOC on Saturday.

He took over from former Italian sports minister Mario Pescante, who announced earlier this year he was standing down to concentrate on his job as a member of the Italian parliament.

Mr Hickey, who was EOC general secretary under Pescante, said he was very clear about his aims as president.

“Firstly the expansion of the European Youth Olympic Festival. These games have become very popular, as shown by the number of cities applying to stage them,” said Hickey. But he stressed that the health of Europe’s youth was equally important.

“There is a real need for us in the EOC to mount a major campaign to tackle the fast-growing problem of obesity and related health issues amongst the youth in Europe.

“Our young people face an ever-increasing list of unhealthy distractions that reduce both their available time and incentive to participate in sport. The relationship between good health, youth and sport is one that requires our most urgent attention and one where the EOC is ideally placed to provide real leadership,” said Hickey.

Hickey also promised a growing role for the smaller nations that make up the EOC, the most powerful continent in the Olympic movement.

“Following political changes there are now 48 nations in our EOC family, with Montenegro soon to be added to the list. Bringing onboard many small countries similar in size to Ireland gives a fresh new dimension to the EOC. These and the other new countries will play a greater role in the future.”

Italy’s Raffaele Pagnozzi was unanimously elected as secretary general to replace Hickey and Pescante was unanimously made honorary president for life.