DAY 141 - ZAGREB AND A MEETING WITH THE PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE

10 September, 2011

Total: 1404.14 miles Total: 2,760, 481 steps

It was a sports mad week in Zagreb—first was the Borisa Hanzekovica, IAAF, World Challenge Athletics Meeting at which Usain Bolt (pic) the fastest man on earth would compete and Croatian legend, Blanka Vlasic would seek to recover from her surprise defeat in World Championships in Degu. Then there was the match of the decade—Dynamo Zagreb v Real Madrid, but first we had been invited as guests of the Croatian Olympic Committee to their 20^th Anniversary Celebrations at spectacular National Theatre.

The ticket said Mezanin Desno, Loza 9, Sjdalo 4. This turned out to be a very special ticket indeed, as it was in the same box as the President of the International Olympic Committee, Count Jacques Rogge and the President of the European Olympic Committee, Patrick Hickey and was next to the President of Croatia, Ivo Josipović and the Prime Minister of Croatia, Jadranka Kosor. Of course, during the event, which was extremely well organized with high quality entertainment, there was little opportunity to give my neighbours a nudge in the ribs and mention the Olympic Truce, but immediately afterwards our Ambassador worked the line like a maestro, not only effecting introductions for me to all the key figures, but even managing to get us an invitation to the exclusive post event dinner for around a dozen special guests on the balcony overlooking the gardens of the National Theatre.

I had to pinch myself to believe this was happening as the President of the International Olympic Committee was someone whom I had tried to reach on a number of occasions as a strong supporter and advocate for the Olympic Truce, but without success. President Rogge was very interested and supportive of the walk and even offered to host me when I came through Lausanne and organise a foot massage for me. We spoke about his efforts to use the Truce to broker sporting relations in the Middle East which had proved extremely challenging, but we also talked about the success in 1994 for the use of the Truce to break the Siege of Sarajevo and speculated whether this could happen again at the time of the London Games.

We were then joined at our table by the President of the European Olympic Committee who was amazed that he had not heard of the walk and wanted to know what more could be done to promote the truce. He promised to give Seb Coe a call and tell him of our meeting and with impeccable follow-up within 24 hours he had done that as well as written to all Olympic committees in the European group to encourage them to do more to mark the truce. Jacques Rogge also followed up within a couple of days giving me his contact details and repeating his offer of hospitality in Lausanne.

I had absolutely no idea that these figures who would be absolutely integral to the widespread implementation of the Olympic Truce would be at this event and would never have anticipated that I would be able to get the access to them that I did. It was a fantastic encouragement and perhaps another one of those turning points.

I feel a bit odd being among the sporting fraternity—truth be known as I have absolutely no background in sport, but the more I see of the organization and the more my admiration grows for the lifetime of dedication and perseverance which athletes give, often voluntarily, to their chosen sport and the transformation that it can bring about in the lives of the young.

We were invited to the press conference a couple of days before the Athletics Meeting and there we saw the celebrities of the sporting world being interviewed, first with great skill, by Britain’s Tim Hutchings, a former 5000 metres champion, and now a commentator with a number of organisations including Eurosport and IMG. Of all the athletes interviewed Dyron Roubles, a 110 metre hurdler from Cuba, impressed me the most; though the interviews with Usain Bolt and Blanka Vlasic were of course compulsive viewing. But of course these people are the cream of the crop, the celebrities who secure tens of thousands of pounds for just showing up at a meeting and then more if they win, or break records. But for every celeb of the sporting circuit there are hundreds more getting Easy Jet flights, staying in lodgings and only able to compete because of the support of family. It is still a wonderful life for any person and it endures.

On my final day in Zagreb our enterprising and highly able press officer at the Embassy, Bernard Vrbran, managed to arrange a photo opp with seven former Olympians from rowing and Water Polo—two sports at which Croatian teams have traditionally excelled. We were to do a walk around the incredible Jarun rowing lakes, which were man-made lakes and given the week it had been, it was amazing to get any athlete or any press there at all, but Bernard pulled off a tremendous coupe and the walk was well attended by athletes and journalists. We had a great time as they spoke about their sporting achievements, but what amazed me most was that they should be interested and even admire the notion of a politician walking to promote the Olympic Truce. I should not have been surprised because the sense of being an Olympian, part of the most elite club in the world, and perhaps even in history, meant that they cared about the Olympic values and the purpose of the Games. Coupled with this, they had known first-hand the bloody nature of armed conflict, and so  the notion of the Olympics and a means of bringing peace between nations and within nations, rested as easily with them as their sporting prowess.

Pictured: Dubravko Simenc; Marko Banovic; Tomislav Smoljanovic; Damir Skaro; Oliver Martinov Tomislav Paskvalin and the little guy in the middle is me.