|  | Foreword | No.51 September 2007 |

President’s Message |
Dear ICSSPE members and friends! Since the last Bulletin, I had the opportunity through various travels, to intensify ICSSPE’s contacts in different regions of the world. Amongst others, I have been visiting and speaking at the 16th International Symposium of Adapted Physical Activity in Rio Claro, Brazil, the 7th Sports Science Conference in Malaysia, whose theme was Sports, Exercise, and Health: Women Breaking Barriers and the “Historical Congress 100 Years of Physical Education and Movement Sciences” at Ghent University. I enjoyed the discussions with specialists from many different fields of sport. I also had the pleasure of meeting Sir Philip Craven, President of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). Prior to the IPC’s International Paralympic Day in Berlin on 23 August 2007, we met to discuss the 2008 International Convention on Sport Education and Medicine in Sport (ICSEMIS) and other future co-operations between the IPC and ICSSPE. ICSSPE staff attended International Paralympic Day with great pleasure, where over 42,000 spectators enjoyed demonstrations of wheelchair basketball, 5-a-side blind football, sitting volleyball, table tennis, and a top-level long jump right in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. Another highlight of the last weeks was the 3rd annual ICSSPE/DKB-ISTAF Symposium which took place on Saturday 15 September 2007 in Berlin. After successful previous symposia discussing altitude training and talent identification and development, this year’s symposium focused on elite schools of sport. Researchers, elite athletes, as well as other representatives from sport, politics and administration discussed their experiences and views on various elite sport school models and structures in different countries around the world, and how high quality education can be combined with high performance athleticism. Our speaker presented many different and interesting points of view and we were happy to have presentations from Ms. Tuuli Merikoski-Silius (Finnish Olympic Committee); Dr. Bernhard Schwank (German Olympic Sports Confederation); Dr. Elio Locatelli (IAAF, Italy); Dr. Sabine Radtke (University of Stirling, Scotland; Freie Universität Berlin, Germany); and Mr. Cameron Hodgson (National Sport School, Calgary, Canada). Great efforts are being made by the 2008 ICSEMIS organisers to put together a highly attractive programme for Guangzhou. The first announcements have been sent out and the website is constantly updated as information becomes available at http://www.icsemis2008.org. I invite you all to spread the information to colleagues and friends and to prepare presentations for this important event. Currently we are in preparation for the next ICSSPE Board meetings to be held in Warsaw, Poland, at the beginning of October. I am really looking forward to meeting all our committed members of the Executive, Associations and Editorial Board to discuss the future developments of ICSSPE. We are also happy with the new release of our new publications and look very much forward to our seminar on “Sport in Post–Disaster Intervention” that will be held in Rheinsberg, Germany in November. For more information please visit the ICSSPE news section. I look forward to hearing your news and seeing you in the near future, Prof. Dr. Gudrun Doll-Tepper President ICSSPE http://www.icsspe.org/portal/index.php?w=1&z=5 President’s Message