Chapter 12

GAISF was trying to expand its reach from being an empty umbrella organization with little real function (pretty much like AIMS) into a meaningful position. The chairman of GAISF, Mr Hein Verbruggen, was a marketing professional and had been chairman of the Cycling Association. His view was to move GAISF from Monaco to Lausanne, base it next to the IOC, create its own games and therefore its own source of income, and so turn the organization into a viable counterpart to the IOC. In the meantime the strength of IOC and IWGA were growing. Their events became increasingly successful and valuable. The budgets grew accordingly.

When Mr Verbruggen first had the idea of organizing the Martial Arts Games, he contacted two Dutch speaking representatives of martial arts, including myself. He explained the background of his ideas, and explained how he wanted the Martial Arts Games to be positioned: not just as the next competition program, but as an event that would showcase the other aspects of martial arts. He referred to the presentation given by Mr Ogi in 2005 and the role of sport. He proposed the idea that martial arts had much to offer in terms of personal development, reconciliation, discipline and upbringing.

Because we were both Dutch, we got along well, and we had some private conversations, in which he told me that he had done Aikido as a student, was well aware of the non-competitive nature of Aikido, that he knew about the issue in IWGA and still wanted to involve Aikido in the Martial Arts Games.

To my mind, this was a tremendous opportunity for Aikido. To finally be given a platform to present Aikido in such a manner that all the philosphical aspects could be show-cased, seemed like an unprecedented chance. I was invited to participate in the preparations of the Combat Games and could follow the road leading up to the first event from up close*.

But as a consequence of GAISF becoming more active and organizing events, its dynamics changed. The convention drew more and more participants from the commercial world. The participants were actually getting younger and younger. More and more the other sports felt that AIMS could be a meaningful organization to them.

GAISF tried to cash in on the success. The name GAISF was changed into SportAccord to benefit from the brand value. SportAccord became a stronger organization towards the IOC. And with several successful games accredited to its name, an unexpected change happended. Mr Verbruggen was followed by a new chairman, Mr Vizer, who had strong commercial goals for SportAccord. He was reported to have made his career in illegal gambling in Eastern Europe, but to have turned legitimate. And contrary to some scepticism he actually made SportAccord more successful.

For Aikido this became apparent between the first and second Combat Games. While in the first Combat Games each participating sport had received some € 15.000 in benefits afterwards (but had been requested to forfit this sum to allow for the preparation of the next games), Mr Viser promised the participating sports € 50.000 profit, and delivered on that promise.

So, after a while the members of SportAccord were happily waiting for the next favourable development. SportAccord for a short while was almost as strong and present as the IOC.

Unfortunatel this success did not last long. After the Combat Games in 2013 the IAF was looking forward to the next SportAccord convention. But Mr Vizer got into a frontal attack on the IOC. He published a letter which led to a chain of events. A large group of sports sided with the IOC against Mr Vizer and he was forced to resign. In the year that followed everybody was waiting for the dust to settle, and in 2015 it was even expected that SportAccord would cease to exist. In 2016 it became clear that fundamental changes had taken place. The IOC had decided to keep SportAccord alive. It would be scaled down, but continue under a new chairman, Mr Bach.

For Aikido this period is structured in a different perspective. In 2010 we were participating in the Combat Games. In 2011 and 2012 we were preparing for the next Combat Games. In 2013 and 2014 we were participating and evaluating the next Combat Games. In 2015 we were overwhelmed by the developments in SportAccord.

But in 2014 and 2015 one other development started that continues to be relevant today. AIMS became more active**.

* I will post more on the Combat Games
** The next post will be about AIMS