Santa Susanna to host next year’s AIPS centenary congress
SEOUL: Santa Susanna, a resort city 70km from Barcelona and 30km from Girona, has been announced as the host of the next AIPS Congress which will be held in a year that marks a major milestone in the history of the global body for sports journalists.
Founded in a boxing ring in Paris in 1924, the International Sports Press Association will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year, 2024. A hundred years of fighting for the rights of sports journalists all over the world and protecting the principles of the profession.
AIPS Executive Committee Member and Vice President of the Spanish Sports Press Association (AEPD), Juan Antonio Prieto, took the stage of the AIPS Congress in Seoul to explain their plans for the 86th AIPS Congress, which will be a very special one. “I believe we can have a successful congress there. The International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB) is willing to support us and we will also be working with other Spanish sponsors.”
Prieto added that the Congress will be held in April before sharing a video showcasing the wide range of attractions “the oasis of the Mediterranean” has to offer.
In February 2023, the first in-person meeting of the AIPS Executive Committee, which was elected at the Rome Congress in October 2022, was held at the Atzavara Hotel in Santa Susanna, and the city, whose Mayor is Joan Campolier, offered great hospitality. Campolier introduced his home as a “charming small city” to the AIPS Executive Committee. This city, which lies between the Mediterranean Sea and the mountains of the Montnegre-Corredor Natural Park, has a little more than 3000 inhabitants but is visited by around two million people throughout the year.
In a video message, the IFBB President Rafael Santonja sent his greetings to the congress delegates from the “world capital of fess”.
The last time the AIPS Congress was held in Spain was in 1997 in Oviedo. Before that Madrid hosted in 1962, Torremolinos in 1974 and Barcelona in 1986.
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION IN PARIS During the congress in Seoul, AIPS President Gianni Merlo has also revealed that plans are underway to organise another significant event in Paris, where AIPS was born, to mark the centenary of the association. “We will have a big celebration during the Paris 2024 Olympics on the 7th or 8th of August at the UNESCO headquarters. We are discussing with the Union of French Sports Journalists (UJSF) on how to organise it in the proper way.”
