LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Kim Jae-youl, president of the International Skating Union (ISU), said Tuesday the whole federation is excited to moving in to the new headquarters in Lausanne, and the relocation is a big step to the development of the sport.
The old headquarters of the world skating governing body is only a couple of minutes walk away from the new one at the center of Lausanne, but an open and much spacious working area is good help to their work, Kim said.
"We used to be in a very cozy, lovely apartment building with a lot of small rooms. It's beautiful. But once you walk into the small room, you never see them again," Kim said. "When we launched our Vision 2030, which would require the new culture openness and willingness to change, one of the first thing we wanted to do is find the new space that will facilitate more communication and collaboration. We found this beautiful space and moved in about three months ago."
"Today is a special day for ISU - a big step to our federation," the president said at the opening ceremony at the new headquarters, which was attended by many leaders of other International Federations (IFs).
ISU Director General Colin Smith said, "It brought a lot of new energy to the team. We've reinforced the team. With some new people, combined with our experience that we had in the team and the move, new logo, new website and new apps. It's just all at the same time come together to create new energy, which I think is very infectious."
President Kim said this move is an investment. "We want to invest in sports to make our sports more attractive. Right now we are competing in so many forms of entertainment, not only in sports, but Netflix and Instagram. We want to invest so we can generate more exciting content, bring more fans to watch our events on TV or live, which would give us better media contracts and more sponsorship. We want to generate more revenue so we can do many things for our athletes and investing in the future," he said.
With the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympic Winter Games only over four months away, ISU is in full wing of the preparation of the gala. The test events of the short track speed skating and figure skating were held in February and the test tournament of speed skating is scheduled at the end of November.
The qualification events for short track and speed skating will run until December to make sure everything is ready before the start of the 2026 Milan Cortina in February.
"There's a very tight integrated planning with all parties involved. So it's a very, very positive relationship between all the parties. We work very closely both with Milan Cortina and especially with the team at IOC to really make sure that we put on the best show possible, provide the best facilities for the skaters to perform, but also the best show for the fans as well," Smith said. ■
