The end of the 41st edition of the Annual Seminar of the Association of European Olympic Committees (EOC), organized last weekend in Samorin, Slovakia. The last day of the meeting in hybrid mode, in which representatives of the 50 national Olympic committees of Europe participated, began with the presentation of European Laurels to around ten personalities – officials, coaches or athletes – rewarded for their contribution to the sport and the European Olympic movement. At the top of the list, the former president of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF), Denis Masseglia, at the helm of the body for 12 years (2009-2021). Marijan Kvesic, President of the NOC of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Sanda Čorak, vice-president of the NOC of Croatia; Kveta Peckova, a cross-country skier from the Czech Republic; Jeno Kamuti, the Hungarian president of the International Committee for Fair Play; Maria Mracnova, former vice-president of the NOC of Slovakia; Zintis Ekmanis, a bobsledder from Latvia; Jozef Lipiec, the former president of the Polish Olympic Academy; and finally Ihor Cheredinov, a Ukrainian shooting coach, were also awarded the European Laurels. The seminar also gave the Turk Hasan Arat, president of the coordination commission for the 2023 European Games in Krakow and Malopolska, the opportunity to take stock of the preparation for the continental event, for which the host city contract will be signed in the month of December. Hasan Arat explained in particular that the competition program already included 16 sports, with three more to come. The third European Games are already shaping up, according to the Turkish leader, to be the densest and most comprehensive in history.
