Sao Paulo: 40 Years of CELAFISCS

Under their leaders Victor Matsudo and Timóteo Araújo the CELAFISCS family celebrated their 40th anniversary on the occasion of the 37th International Symposium on Sports Sciences, held 2-4 October in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

In the presence of approximately 600 academics including representatives of ICSSPE member organisations, an intensive and enthusiastic knowledge exchange took place, mostly by young academics. Victor Matsudo, who is giving CELAFISCS a face and who is one of the driving forces behind the manifold activities, thanked colleagues, friends and the large amount of students that have been working with enthusiasm over many years to collect data on health in relation with sedentary and physically active lifestyles. Matsudo expressed his gratefulness to Sandra Matsudo who has for many years given her expertise and energy to develop CELAFISCS and who is now working in Chile.

ICSSPE Executive Director Detlef Dumon who took part in both the AGITA MUNDO network meeting held prior to the symposium, as well as in the symposium, stressed the need for global activities in the areas of public health, physical activity and sedentary lifestyle: “We have to improve data collection and knowledge exchange between Latin American experts and academia from other continents. It is exciting to observe the amount of parallel research activities in physical education, but we could advance the field more efficiently if existing knowledge would be shared better. Also, speaking with a global voice would help our advocacy work and our efforts for policy development on a global scale.”  Mr Dumon is convinced that the 2016 ICSEMIS that will be held in the state of Sao Paulo will serve this need and invited delegates of the symposium to join the mutual knowledge exchange among experts.