What A Day! 07/12/2016

It cannot be emphasised enough: that the announcement of DanceSport's inclusion into the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games and the formal opening of the governing body's new headquarters in Lausanne coincided, virtually, was not scripted anywhere. It was a coincidence!

The World DanceSport Federation had invited to a cocktail reception to celebrate the opening of its office at the House of International Sport a few weeks ago. On Wednesday 7 December, close to 100 invitees honoured WDSF President Lukas Hinder, CEO Jean-Laurent Bourquin plus the entire staff from the Lausanne and Barcelona offices with their presence. The short addresesses by both Hinder and Bourquin as well as the excellent catering were complemented by Street Dance demonstrations. But more about that later! Here is the speech held by the WDSF President:

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends in Sports!

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the opening of our headquarters at the Maison du Sport International in Lausanne. Your numerous attendance is very much appreciated as it epitomises perfectly what being based in this city of sports is all about.

Here we are, the new folks on the block, inviting you for a housewarming party of which you have to assume that it corresponds in scale to the 20 square metres of total office space that we occupy. And still, all of you honour us with your presence. This must be the kind of sporting solidarity that makes the location so unique!

For a player of more modest stature – and that is what we are, certainly by comparison to some of our peers – it is a privilege to be here, to consider the Olympic Capital our home and the Home of International Sport the place where we find perfect congeniality.

The World DanceSport Federation will be an exemplary tenant; I vouch for that to our landlords. To our fellow MSI residents as well as to the other sporting bodies present in Lausanne I pledge that WDSF will be a good team player, contributing to the promotion and the development of sport in general whenever it is called upon.

We made it here in record time! Only Usain Bolt should have been faster in Lausanne than WDSF. To the people who made our speedy relocation possible we owe our most sincere gratitude.

Representatives of the City of Lausanne and the Canton of Vaud were our first counterparts in discussing the plan of relocating. That was back in April! In August, MSI made us an offer that the WDSF Presidium simply had to accept. Then everything else started to fall into place too: the office was operational from September and permanently staffed from October.

That we succeeded to pull this off in all of six months is the merit of Jean-Laurent Bourquin, our CEO since June, as well as his wide network of colleagues and friends. By thanking him I also express my gratitude to many of you present here today.

Merci, Jean-Laurent – merci à tous! We couldn’t have done it without you!

Jean-Laurent anchored what turned into a tightly timed relay connecting Barcelona, where WDSF maintains a branch office, with Lausanne. Staff members may work from two far removed locations now – but they do so in the spirit of internationality and good collaboration across all frontiers.

Before I hand back to Jean-Laurent, allow me to make reference to something that has coincided with the opening of our headquarters.

Yesterday, the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee has voted to add DanceSport to the programme of the Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018. Less than two years from now, 24 of our youngest athletes will have the opportunity to contest three sets of medals in Breakdancing.

As everyone can imagine, this, too, will go down as a milestone in the history of WDSF. Possibly the most important one since it achieved IOC recognition nearly 20 years ago!

It certainly is the fulfilment of a long-held dream and it will allow us to showcase the full breadth of our sport to the world at large.