Wow, what an exciting and successful year 2025 was. After the outstanding Games in Paris for our sport, we were able to go one better this year. We saw 26 ICF competitions, and many images will remain in our memories. All of them were outstanding advertisements for our sport, and please forgive me for mentioning only a few highlights.
The World Games in China, with canoeing in three disciplines, impressed the sporting world. The Canoe Sprint World Championships in the country hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics proved how exciting Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe can be, and Down Under we experienced an outstanding Slalom World Championships, which was one of the best in our history, not only in terms of sporting results but also in terms of atmosphere.
At the end of the year, I would therefore like to thank all the organisers of ICF competitions, all referees, all ICF Committee members, all volunteers, and our ICF staff for their commitment. Without you, we would not be able to give our wonderful sport the stage it deserves.
But behind the scenes, many more stakeholders worked hard and successfully to implement our Fit for Future strategy. A working group held 20 meetings under the leadership of our Vice President Lluis Rabaneda to develop new Olympic qualification systems. For the first time, this was done in a transparent manner rather than behind closed doors, and we would like to express our sincere gratitude to our National Federations for their contributions.
The aim was to make the World Cups between the Olympic Games even more attractive and, at the same time, generate more global attention for our sport. All five continents were able to win medals at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. In Paris, we had the highest TV viewership in Asia and the Americas, but this global nature was not reflected in the hosts of these competitions. Most of our World Cups in the Olympic and Paralympic disciplines take place in Europe, and the goal is to host these important competitions worldwide in the future. We hope to achieve this with our new qualification system, and we would also like to thank our European Canoe Association for its support of this strategy.
Since the middle of this year, five working groups with almost 40 members have been working on a governance review. We will present the proposals of these working groups to you at the beginning of next year in Town Hall meetings and look forward to receiving your feedback.
It was also important to us, and to our Vice President in charge, Cecilia Farias, to improve our development activities and give more athletes from all continents the opportunity to benefit from them. This year, we were able to organise 42 actions, including training camps, coaches courses, Sustainability Webinar Series, a Women’s Symposium, and support projects with technical knowledge and equipment to the continental competitions. I know there can never be enough help, but we are getting better every year and we will continue to get better.
As always, our employees have done an outstanding job. Thank you to our Secretary General Richard Pettit and the entire team. We have been able to increase our number of employees from 12 four years ago to 43 today. With the support of our Hungarian friends, we have moved into our new headquarters in Budapest and continue to work from our offices in Lausanne and Hangzhou. And yes, with the expansion of our workforce, we have raised expectations for an even better service. I am aware that you need to see this progress and improved service across our National Federations and Continental Associations, and that you should benefit from it.
I promise you that we will deliver.
The coming year will also be challenging. So make the most of the holidays in countries that celebrate Christmas, take a break over the New Year in countries that celebrate other festivals, and come back next year with renewed energy to continue developing our wonderful sport. I wish all our colleagues, athletes, and fans a peaceful New Year and a successful and, above all, healthy 2026.
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