International Rafting Federation

Official world rafting governing body

Curtain closes on the UTS World Virtual Youth Festival 2021

5 December 2021

The UTS World Virtual Youth Festival 2021 came to an end with a breath-taking Closing Ceremony from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia was the centre for youth of all abilities coming together under the patronage of the IOC, IPC, SOI, SportAccord, GAISF and AIMS.

Over 100 organisations joined forces with one mission, to promote inclusion, non-discrimination, equality, and the youth of the world standing together towards a better tomorrow.

Thousands of youths participated in the five diverse competitions, the Max Fit, Aero Fit, IPC inclusive Challenge and the SOI Unified Fitness Challenge and the Talent competition. While the kids were competing, four live workshops and six conference sessions took place on the virtual platform. The leaders of sport and the athletes of the world shared knowledge and discussed current sport-related topics. It was clear that the youth took the centre stage of all activities, with the IOC Young Leaders’ workshop and the UTS World Youth Ambassador workshop combined having over 30,000 viewers and participants.

The Opening Conference had speakers including Noble Peace Prize Winner Professor Yunus, 8^th UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, His Royal Highness Prince Faisal Bin Hussein, founder of Generations for Peace and the list goes on. This conference welcomed over 12,000 participants.

UTS President Stephan Fox addressed the youth of Saudi Arabia, giving his respect for their strong participation, stating, “Saudi youth are cool and inquisitive kids, the future looks bright. To see yet again the IFs and their NFs working together was fantastic, we all witnessed how sport unites us all and how much we can achieve standing in solidarity.”

CEO of UTS, Julia Govinden thanked the youth of the world for participating in this historical event and their families for all the support stating, “The participation in this festival says it all, and our efforts to give opportunity to all youth will continue.”