During the April 2008 ANOC General Assembly held in Beijing, the ATLANTA DITC was invited by the International Organisation of La Francophonie to the August 9 Francophonie Event during the Beijing Games.

 Today August 9th at the Sofitel Wanda in Beijing, the event was hosted by Abdou DIOUF, Secretary General of La Francophonie, together with Jacques ROGGE, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and LIU Qi, President of the Beijing Olympic Games Organising Committee (BOCOG).

Jean-Pierre RAFFARIN, who serves as the Grand Témoin de la Francophonie for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing (August 8th – 24th 2008) alongside Abdou DIOUF (former President of Senegal) who appointed him to this position to observe the use of the French language in various places and departments both in the build up to and during the Games. 

Abdou DIOUF’s objective at today's event held the day after the opening ceremony is to unite French-speaking heads of state, sports ministers, IOC members, international federation and national Olympic committee presidents, representatives from the Olympic host cities of Vancouver, London and Sochi, and representatives from the candidate cities for the 2016 Games, as well as French-speaking athletes and artists. This celebration is meant to promote the French language, an official Olympic language, and the values shared by the francophone community and the Olympic movement.

After a series of speeches given by President Jacques ROGGE, former PM Jean-Pierre RAFFARIN and President Abdou DIOUF, the highlight of the event was certainly President ROGGE playing table tennis against Jean-Michel SAIVE a Belgian 5 times Olympian. The other players were all Chinese, such as 1985 and 1987 World Champion Jian Jialiang, Chen Long Can, and Wang Tao.

During the event, Dr. Marc Daniel GUTEKUNST met with both PM RAFFARIN and President DIOUF who both agreed to visit the ATLANTA DITC when in the US.


Same background on Belgian OLYMPIAN Jean-Michel SAIVE:

Jean-Michel SAIVE participated to five consecutive Summer Olympic Games, from 1988, when table tennis became an official Olympic sport in Seoul, to 2004 in Athens. At the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games 1996 and 2004 he was the flag bearer of the Belgian team.

For the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, the 20 highest ranked ITTF players were to be selected for the Olympics.

SAIVE expected to be selected as he was tied in 20th position together with the Swede Jörgen PERSSON and there was no rule to decide what to do in case of ties. The ITTF decided they needed to play an extra playoff to determine who got the last spot. However, they refused to play as they agreed they should both get a ticket. The ITTF then recalculated the rankings and placed PERSSON in 20th position and SAIVE in 21st. It is now unclear if SAIVE, who still does not want to play in the extra qualification tournaments since he believes he deserves to go, will complain through the Court of Arbitration for Sport for unfair treatment, he gets support from PERSSON and has asked the ITTF for an explanation in a letter.

His successes made him the best Belgian table tennis player and he is also one of the best sportsmen of Belgium. He was elected Sports Personality of the Year 1991 and 1994. Jean-Michel SAIVE is known for his victories but also for his sportsmanship. He was awarded the UNESCO World Award of Fair Play in 1989.