Alina And Timo
Dear Friends!
We would like to introduce ourselves as the first elected members of the Athletes’ Commission. We are Alina Basiuk from Russia and Timo Kulczak from Germany. Between the two of us, we take the lead in defining the working methods for our commission to serve as the direct link between the active, registered athletes and the other organs of IDSF.
We strongly believe that all athletes need to assume an important role in our organisation as well as in the development of our sport. To best way to achieve this is by allowing athletes to provide input directly to the IDSF Presidium, making their voices heard, and thus making their contribution to the future of DanceSport.
All International Sports Federations belonging to the Olympic Movement are challenged to include an organ within its structure which is specifically tasked with upholding and defending the rights/obligations of the athletes.
Our commission is fully incorporated into decision-making process of IDSF, and through us, athletes are equipped with voting rights on the Presidium. We held our first formal meeting with the members of the IDSF Presidium in January 2010. After exchanging with the Secretary General and the Sports Director for one day, we joined the other members in their deliberations.
We were already able to present some of our concerns. Issues ranging from adequate space in changing rooms, balanced nutrition, etc. - which should be provided to athletes by the competition organisers under the terms of contractual obligations – all the way to a worldwide network of spokespersons for athletes were addressed in the meeting.
We feel that each IDSF National Member Body needs to have athletes’ representatives, properly elected, to ensure that they are able to voice their opinions and to contribute to sport’s development at this level too.
Furthermore, we propose to schedule at least one annual meeting between athletes concurrently with a major competition – such as the German Open - for us to receive their input as well as their feedback regarding our work on their behalf.
This website is merely the first step in our efforts to communicate and liaise with athletes at all levels in all countries, and to eventually maintain an ongoing dialogue between us and our peers.
Alina Bastiuk Timo Kulcak
