Jean Zoungrana, president of the European Canoe Association and French Canoe Federation, visited Slovakia to strengthen partnerships of the ECA and the FFCK with Slovak colleagues and support projects with institutional partners.
During his visit he met with Boris Bergendi, Secretary General of the Canoe sprint section of Slovak Canoeing, and with Martin Stanovsky Senior and Martin Stanovsky Junior, President and Secretary General of the Canoe slalom section of Slovak Canoeing.
Jean Zoungrana took the opportunity to see the canoe slalom venue in Čunovo, which hosted Senior as well as Junior and U23 Canoe Slalom European Championships on multiple occasions, as well as the Zemnik Canoe Sprint venue, which will welcome the best Junior and U23 Canoe Sprint paddlers at the 2024 ECA Junior and U23 Canoe Sprint European Championships in June 2024.
Zoungrana, who is also vice-president of the French Olympic Committee, took an opportunity to meet with President of the Slovak Olympic Committee Anton Siekel and Secretary General Jozef Liba. Among other things they discussed the important position of Slovak Canoeing in Europe and also the geopolitical context and its impacts on the sporting movement and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. This was also an opportunity to visit the museum of the Olympic committee with the Director and spend some time with school children visiting the site.
The busy working visit included the meeting with the Minister of the Environment Tomas Taraba, and with Peter Janura, Director General, to present the new infrastructure projects which should make it possible to consolidate Slovakia's place within Europe and strengthen its attractiveness in terms of sports tourism, and develop our paddle sports. A visit was carried out with Katarina Brunckova, former State Secretary of Ministry of Transport.
To conclude the busy trip, the visit of the parliament in session on the Budget vote was included, with time for discussion with Jan Blchac – Mayor of Liptovsky Mikulas, Member of the National Council and Chairman of the Committee for Finance and Budget. Alongside Bratislava, Liptovsky Mikulas is another important centre of Slovak Canoeing, with many international competitions of the highest level organised there.