Alfred Foloko
SUNSPORTS writes@SunZambian
THE past year marked a milestone for the National Olympic Committee of Zambia (NOCZ) from which successes scored will drive future progress, NOCZ President Alfred Foloko has said.
Speaking in a end of year message, the Olympics boss said his organisation was able to overcome the challenges brought up by corona-virus and had been able to score several successes.“The year 2020 saw the NOCZ spearhead and deliver a number of activities with and through its International and local partners among them training of sports administrators and NOCZ staff under the new normal, both physically and virtually,” he said.He said NOCZ strived to achieve their vision through commitment commensurate with its leadership and role in sports administration and management despite the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.“In line with our Strategic Plan, we continued to promote Olympism in Zambia through the Olympic Day, which was hosted in June. For the first time, the Olympic Day activities were held virtually with people participating from the comfort of their homes, we collaborated with Kwame Nkrumah University to host an Independence Day Olympic Value Education Programme (OVEP) conference as part of the activi-ties.“With increasing support from all our partners, NOCZ has never held so much promise. In addition, it is this promise that we use to con-tinue writing our own victories in history,” he said.He stated that 2020 had been a challenging year, not only for sport but also in day to day lives.“The world around us seemed to have stopped as we all fought against the COVID-19 pandemic, and due to the diligence of everyone we have seen remarkable improvement in the right direction for our society, and such actions have led us here today,” Foloko said.“Despite COVID – 19 almost bringing the world to its knees due to its unprecedented and unpredictable spread which resulted into the postponing of the 2020 Summer Olympics officially known as the Games of the XXXII Olympiad and commonly known as Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, we had to adopt new ways of managing of our Strategic Plan, Secretariat Operations and the delivery of our development agenda for sports and Olympism in our country.“As you may be aware, the goal of the Olympic Movement in Zambia is to ensure that all members of the Olympic family in the country are better served regardless of their circumstances.”
He called on sports federations not to fall into complacency butto continue to observe Covid-19 protocols as guided by public health authori-ties.
