That’s the query the Whistler Institute and its panel of Olympic heavy-hitters will discover at its World Views Speaker Collection occasion on Thursday, April 21
With a possible Vancouver/Whistler bid for the 2030 Video games on the desk and the second Olympics in as a few years just lately wrapped up, the Olympics are a fair hotter subject of debate in B.C. than normal.
The Whistler Institute could be becoming a member of that collective dialog with its upcoming speak, “The Position of the Olympic Motion in an Ever-Altering World,” however don’t mistake that for hopping on the bandwagon.
In relation to the Institute’s World Views Speaker Collection, “We’ve this little course of the place we kick round concepts, form of see what catches folks’s curiosity,” mentioned Dave Williamson, the Whistler Institute’s board chair. “We began speaking about this one fairly some time in the past, and it form of slowly got here collectively. Some cellphone calls; gathered some help, and we form of solidified it final fall.”
Set to happen on the Rainbow Theatre subsequent Thursday, April 21 from 6:30 to 10 p.m., the occasion marks the fifth iteration within the Institute’s ongoing sequence, however the first to happen totally in particular person for the reason that sequence commenced in 2019. Earlier subjects included electrical and autonomous automobiles, tourism, and the local weather emergency.
“It’s good to be again in particular person. I feel all people’s trying ahead to that,” mentioned Williamson.
The speaker sequence is designed to stimulate dialogue round main international points by that includes “achieved worldwide thought leaders who’ve made a world affect by way of evolutionary and even revolutionary developments of their fields,” in accordance with the Institute’s web site.
Audio system at Thursday’s occasion will embrace Olympic Video games Govt Director Christophe Dubi and Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) president Tricia Smith, in addition to an athlete panel comprised of Paralympic swimmer Chelsey Gotell, present chairperson of the Worldwide Paralympic Committee Athletes’ Council; Clara Hughes, the one athlete to win a number of medals at each the summer season and winter Olympics; Hamoon Derafshipour, a karate athlete and member of the Olympic refugee workforce; and Paralympic basketball champ Richard Peter. Whistler Mayor Jack Crompton will average the dialogue.
“So there’s going to be seven folks up on the stage, having a form of a dialogue, speaking about what they see as the way forward for the Video games and the way it looks like issues are altering,” mentioned Williamson.
Significantly in gentle of Whistler’s deep Olympic roots—the Video games have been a part of the founding imaginative and prescient for the ski resort many years earlier than Whistler turned a bunch location in 2010, famous Whistler Institute government director Suki Cheyne in an e-mail—“The purpose of this panel dialogue is to proceed the ‘thought management’ theme of the World Views Collection to find out how the Olympic motion is evolving and addressing social and environmental challenges and UN Sustainable Pointers,” she defined.
“Sport occasion panorama modified over the length of the pandemic, impacting each a part of occasions, from the athlete to the spectator. The socioeconomic landscapes have additionally modified dramatically over the previous couple of years and sporting occasion organizers are adapting to these adjustments.”
A VIP reception and hearth chat, that includes a dialogue between athlete and two-time Worldwide Olympic Committee vice-president Dick Pound—who can also be credited because the founding president of the World Anti-Doping Company—and retired Olympic champion velocity skater Catriona Le Could Doan—who most just lately served as Staff Canada’s chef de mission on the 2022 Winter Olympic Video games in Beijing—will happen instantly following the occasion, upstairs on the Whistler Convention Centre from 8 to 10 p.m.
With various present and former Olympians among the many resort’s resident inhabitants, the Whistler Institute mentioned it additionally plans to have a good time native Olympic athletes on the occasion.
Tickets to the theatre occasion and VIP reception can be found for buy on the Whistler Institute’s web site for $80, with tickets to solely the theatre portion of the night on sale for $30.
A filmed model of the dialogue will likely be obtainable on-line following the occasion.
