Welcome To All

Ashli Williamson, Thomas Bach, Lukas Hinder

WDSF President Lukas Hinder addressed the organisers of and the participants in the 2016 World Championships held over the upcoming weekend in Chengdu, CHN, with a short speech during fantastic Welcome Party at the Balan International Hotel in Dujiangyan - Chengdu.

His discourse preceded the recording of a second instalment of "Skype The Prez," a series of informal exchanges between Hinder and the WFSF Athletes' Commission chair and four-time World Ten Dance Champion Ashli Williamson. Stay tuned for the first parts of the 45-minute exchange on Skype to get published over this weekend.

Referring to the upcoming events in Chengdu, Hinder pointed to China's role in world sports that contrasted strongly with the fact that not all dancers who planned to take part in the World Championships were able to do so.

Below is Hinder's speech in its full length. His message in short: things may have gone wrong on this occasion, but the WDSF is optimistic that corrective measures will be taken by the parties concerned to ensure that no visa-related problems will affect any of the future DanceSport events scheduled in the People's Republic of China.

Hello Everybody! – “Ni Hao!”

First, I wish to thank the Chengdu organisers – that refers to all the different parties that fall under this generic – for their hospitality today and until we leave after another weekend that will go down in DanceSport history.

To bring a proven formula to work once more: I should probably say “Xie Xie” – but that is how far my proficiency in Mandarin takes me. That’s it for this WDSF official dabbling in Chinese.

Second, I would like to welcome the athletes and officials. I salute them and say: “I am very glad you made it!” As we all know, not all who wanted to be here in Chengdu for the World Championships this year were able to make it. At least two were denied a visa and thus entry into this hospitable country.

Dancers have been coming to this city for several years and have had the opportunity to perform in front of the appreciative local audiences on a number of occasions in the past. Chengdu’s enthusiasm for DanceSport combined with the friendliness of the hosts made for memorable experiences on the part of the athletes every time.

The Chinese DanceSport Federation assures us that it did all it could to expedite the visa matters. The same it always did! That had worked perfectly well in the past – for many years and as recently as the GrandSlam in Wuhan in April. I expect that it will return to working well in the future – short, mid and long term. Remember, China hosts the Winter Olympics in 2022.

I will ask other international federations and organisations in the sports movement whether they have made similar experiences as of recently. But that will be after my return to Switzerland.

For the time being, we try to make the best out of the situation and raise our glasses to the athletes who are here – as well as to those who could not make. To those present I wish

Good luck and good dancing!