Mayor of Anaheim welcomes FIVB World Congress
Anaheim, USA, September 19, 2012 – The Mayor of the city of
Anaheim Mr. Tom Tait welcomed the 226 delegates from 196
countries at the opening ceremony of the 33rd FIVB World
Congress chaired by Mr. Jizhong Wei, President of FIVB.
Mr. Tait called the city of Anaheim and the area of Southern
California as the home of volleyball and beach volleyball teams
of United States while remarking on the rapid growth of
volleyball across the globe which he considered the second most
practiced sport in the world.
"We are very proud of the performance of our national teams at
the recent London Olympic Games for a country where more than 46
million people practice this awesome sport in the United
States.”
Mrs. Anita DeFrantz, a lifetime member of the International
Olympic Committee who is its first-ever female vice-president,
also expressed her best wishes to the participants on behalf of
IOC President, Jacques Rogge.
“On behalf of Mr. Rogge and myself I wish you the best during
this congress where you will be electing new leadership,” Mrs.
DeFrantz said.
She was followed with welcome speeches by Mr. Larry Probst,
chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee and Mr. Douglas Beal, CEO
of Volleyball USA.
“The USOC is very proud to have all delegates from the national
federations of FIVB and I hope you can have a productive
congress,” Probst said.
Beal called Anaheim a lovely land that can turn everyone back to
their childhood days in Disneyland and referred this is the
third time USA hosts the FIVB World Congress with the previous
ones in Long Beach, California (1984) and Atlanta (1996).
“I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute thanks to Mr.
Jizhong Wei for his leadership and the way he has conducted FIVB
during the past four years,” he said while receiving a big round
of applause from the delegates.
A total number of 262 delegates from 196 federations (including
eight proxies) were confirmed in attendence.
The FIVB Congress is being streamed live at:
http://www.klewel.com/conferences/fivb-congress-2012/ |