A special invitation was given to the United Through Sports President, Stephan Fox, to present United Through Sports at the 77th OCA Executive Board Meeting.
President Fox thanked acting President of the OCA Raja Randhir Singh and Director General Husain Al-Musallam, for the opportunity and he presented the 2021 World Virtual Youth Festival hosted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The UTS President thanked His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz Bin Turki Al Faisal, the President of the National Olympic Committee of Saudi Arabia and Minister of Sport and His Highness Prince Fahad Bin Jalawi Al Saud the Vice President for an outstanding “Sport For All.”
The United Through Sports World Virtual Youth Festival is an innovative celebration of youth providing inclusive protected and equal access for sport and education. The festival is under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee, International Paralympic Committee, the Special Olympics, GAISF and SportAccord and AIMS. Mr. Fox outlined the transformation of a physical sport festival concept to a digital one on a virtual field of play.
The UTS values which stood out in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia festival were peace promotion, non-discrimination, equality and inclusion. The President presented the impact by numbers of the 2021 festival with 121 countries participating, over 50,000 participating youth of all abilities, over 200,000 viewers at the workshops and seminars, 68 international federations and 117 Youth Ambassadors.
The UTS Competition Finals
There were 5 multi-sport events with 217 medals. The festival also included an education program and opening and closing speakers such as the IOC President Thomas Bach, IPC President Andrew Parsons, the CEO of SOI Mary Davis, His Excellency Ban Ki-moon, HRH Prince Faisal, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus and many esteemed leaders.
Mr. Fox once again thanked the Olympic Committee of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for giving this opportunity to the youth of the world and providing an unforgettable opening ceremony in the birthplace of the Kingdom, Diriyah.
UTS President stated: “Now that all eyes are on Bangkok as the 2022 event will be part of the APEC Meeting under the slogan ‘United Voice of the Youth.’”
