FISU President Oleg Matytsin, left, has met his IOC counterpart Thomas Bach ©FISU

International University Sports Federation (FISU) President Oleg Matytsin has met with his International Olympic Committee (IOC) counterpart Thomas Bach to discuss mutual projects relating to athletes at student level.

Matytsin was accompanied with FISU secretary general Eric Saintrond for a meeting in Lausanne with Bach and IOC sports director Kit McConnell. 

Areas discussed included the IOC Agenda 2020 aim to "strenghen the level of support that they provide to Olympic athletes, particularly in the areas of personal and career development outside of their sports career".

FISU has the "explicit mission to give opportunities to students through sports and education programmes, allowing them to pursue their goals, in and out of the competition arena". 

"Today we discussed the key challenges within the Olympic Movement related to athlete development and promoting the idea that dual career athletes can reach the highest levels of achievement, as a sportsperson today and as a future leader of our society," said Matytsin afterwards.

"The skills learned through both endeavours builds transformative and transferrable skills like leadership, accountability and performing well under pressure."

The two Presidents also discussed the 2017 Summer Universiade in Taipei and FISU’s "leading role in further developing its inter-university sports programme". 

FISU and IOC officials pictured meeting in Lausanne ©FISU
FISU and IOC officials pictured meeting in Lausanne ©FISU

Matytsin also "commended the IOC and President Bach for their role in the developing peace process on the Korean Peninsula".

"Clean sport" was also discussed following the Russian doping scandal which has engulfed both the Olympic and university sports movements.

FISU did not go into detail exactly what they spoke about here.

They did express interest, however, in working with the new InternationalTesting Agency (ITA) being set-up to centralise the drug-testing system.

They also discussed the anti-doping eTextbook that FISU put together in concert with the World Anti-Doping Agency, a learning module that is in use in numerous university curriculums.

The meeting followed the official opening of FISU's headquarters in Lausanne last week.

"Having officially moved to the Olympic Capital city this past week, at FISU we are set up well to help lead the sports world in developing focused, action-oriented educational programmes and dual career initiatives," Matytsin added.  

"That make a measurable difference in athlete development, for both their sporting and non-sporting careers."