Speakers
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
Frédéric AUBERT is a former teacher at the University of PARIS V René Descartes. Frédéric has a magnificent career as a high-level coach in athletics. He was then the physical trainer of the Stade Français CASG Rugby from 1997 to 2004 and the XV de France for the Rugby World Cup in Australia in 2003.
In parallel, Frédéric was a teacher trainer at the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance from 1999 to 2009. From 2004, he was physical trainer of the French Badminton team, including Hongyan PI (world number 2). In tennis, he also accompanied Richard GASQUET in his mixed doubles title at Roland GARROS.
In 2007 Frédéric began his adventure with the French women’s basketball team. He became the most medal-winning coach in French basketball: 2009 European Champions, bronze medal in 2011 and silver medal at the London Olympics in 2012. In 2011, he joined the men’s team of the band with Tony PAKER: Vice-Champion of Europe in 2011 and European Champion in 2013.
In the summer of 2013, Frédéric joined the staff of the French women’s football team. A new adventure in another great collective sport.
To date, Frédéric is is one of the great French specialists in physical preparation. These many books written and co-written are references in the world of performance.
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
Former International A in high jump, Thierry Blancon quickly became Head Coach within the French Athletics Federation. After twenty years in this institution, he took on teaching duties at INSEP while continuing to train many high-level individuals. During these forty years of experience, he was an essential cog in the career of Naman Keita, Joël Vincent, Xavier Robilliard, Khemraz Naiko, Jean-Claude Rabbath, Maryse Ewanje-Epe, Eunice Barber, Hind Bounouail, Christina Fink and still today Nawal Meniker, to name only the most capped.
For more than ten years, Thierry has become the physical trainer of star male and female dancers at the Paris Opera. At the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance, he is strongly involved in the initial and ongoing training of high-level coaches, and is the author of many reference works in the fields of jumps, physical preparation and lately plyometrics.
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
Sergii Bubka is a Ukrainian former pole vaulter who won six IAAF World Championships and broke the world record for men’s pole vault 35 times.
He was Olympic champion at the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games and was voted the world’s best athlete on several occasions.
Beyond his individual sports accomplishments, Mr. Bubka plays a crucial role in sports administration. He was President of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Ukraine for 17 years, has been a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 1999 and served on the IOC Executive Board for 16 years. In addition, he was Vice President of World Athletics (formerly IAAF) for 8 years and Senior Vice President for a further 8 years.
Mr Bubka is currently Chair of the IOC Athletes’ Entourage Commission and President of the International Masters Games Association. He also heads up the IOC’s Solidarity Fund for Ukraine, which has helped to support the Ukrainian athletes – and their entourage – on their qualification path and preparation for the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
Throughout his career, Mr. Bubka has campaigned to support and underline the importance of male and female coaches at all levels of sport performance both through his leadership positions in the IOC and those at World Athletics.
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
Clémence Cathelain-Collon is a doctor (PhD) in sports law associated with the Sorbonne legal research laboratory (IRJS) of the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. She also obtained three master’s degrees in public business law, law-economics and management and sports law. Her work focuses on the regulation of sports betting and the legal aspects linked to sporting integrity issues. She was a jurist for three years in the legal department of the French National Gambling Authority. She also collaborates with the publisher Droitdusport.com and is a member of the disciplinary committee of the Rugby XIII League Federation.
PARALYMPIC SESSION, 5-6 SEPTEMBER
Michelle De Highden is the High Performance Coach Development Senior Lead at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS). She is a high-performance coach and coach developer with extensive experience designing and implementing strategy, coaching, developing, monitoring, and managing athletes, coaches, and key stakeholders at the international level.
Over the last 2 ½ years Michelle has led a national project on behalf of the AIS to understand the lived experiences of women in high performance coaching and the ecosystem they work within, with the view to develop sustainable strategies and interventions that will impact upon their experiences and underrepresentation. In November 2023 the AIS released The Leaky Pipeline, which is the Women in High Performance Action Plan to lead and support change across the high performance sector.
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
Thierry Dumaine was coach of the French rugby XIII team from 2005 to 2014. He was also technical coordinator and manager of the young French teams and high-level referent for the French Rugby Federation XII at the Ministry of Sports.
In 2014, Thierry became head coach and performance project manager for the U19 Catalan Dragons. He joined the Institut National du Sport, de l’Expertise et de la Performance in 2018 as head of the performance support unit. He accompanies performance directors, staffs and athletes in Olympic projects for Paris 2024. He will be at the heart of the performance for New Caledonia during the Pacific Games in 2019.
Thierry is also responsible for individual coaching (API coach). He leads the medalbility projects in collaboration with the National Sport Agency and the Athlete 360 project. He is responsible for the physical dimension group and the mental dimension group of the Grand INSEP network. He is currently Deputy Head of Performance at INSEP.
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
Since 2007 Wiebke Fabinski has been working at the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) in the coach education department. There she is responsible for the development and implementation of the guidelines for coaches education which is the foundation of the DOSB-licence system with more than 1 million licences. The core of her work consists of supporting the associations in further developing coach education in the best possible way. An important part of this work is the development and maintenance of a community of those responsible for education, in which innovations and actions are developed collaboratively to continuously improve coach education in Germany across all sports.
Wiebke is a member of the Global Coaches House planning group and there responsible for one of the session “Meeting the challenges of Olympic coaching”
PARALYMPIC SESSION, 5-6 SEPTEMBER
Beat Fäh attended the Zurich University of the Arts. His acting career did not last too long, as his interest in theatre directing took over and he has already worked on well over 100 productions, mainly in Germany, in drama and opera.
From 2002, he undertook various training courses as an athletics coach, which he finally successfully completed in 2013 with a diploma in elite sport from Swiss Olympic.
From the Paralympics in London to the Paralympics in Tokyo, he was the national coach of the Swiss wheelchair racing track and field athletes. During this time, Manuela Schär, Catherine Debrunner and Marcel Hug won countless World Championship and Paralympic titles.
PARALYMPIC SESSION, 5-6 SEPTEMBER
Keren Faulkner is a sport leader with a passion for teamwork. Her previous roles at the Australian Institute of Sport, AusCycling and Paralympics Australia provided great opportunities to build leadership skills within the Australian Sport System. As a Sports Physiotherapist, Keren supported the Australian team at 2 Olympic Games, 3 Paralympic Games and 3 Commonwealth Games and led Physical Therapies at the 2018 Invictus Games. Her current role is Director at the South Australian Sports Institute where she strives to increase Para-sport inclusion and representation.
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
Claude Fauquet has always been passionate about the world of performance. He was director of performance from 1995 to 2001, then national technical director of the French swimming federation until 2008. He left his position leaving French swimming in 3rd place worldwide.
In 1996 after the catastrophic Olympic Games in Atlanta, Claude allowed in 1998 to regain 4 medals at the world championships in Perth including the 1st world title for a French swimmer with Roxana Maracineanu and three silver medals including that of Xavier Marchand, the father of Léon Marchand.
The French team will have 13 medals at the next 3 Olympic Games (Sidney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008), including 2 Olympic titles with Laure Manaudou and Alain Bernard.
Claude still remembers an exceptional adventure with his staff, swimmers who have allowed French swimming to exist. He was then appointed to the cabinet of sports minister Bernard Laporte for the reform of high-level sport. He now works as a consultant for the high level.
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST; PARALYMPIC SESSION, 5-6 SEPTEMBER
Wolfgang Killing is responsible for Coach Education in the German Disabled Sports Association. Prior to this he was Director of the Coaches Academy at the German Athletics Federation (DLV).
Early on in his career, Wolfgang was club and regional coach for athletics, and between 1987-2006 was National Coach for Highjump and Jumping Events at the DLV.
From 1988-2012 Wolfgang was Director of the International Highjump & Polevault Meeting Wuppertal; 1999-2016 was on the Board of BTV Wuppertal 1846 (sport club); and from 2007-2018 was spokesperson for the German Science Coordinators.
Wolfgang participated in the Olympic Games as a high jumper in 1976, was a bronze medallist at the 1978 European Indoor Championships (2.28 m).
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
Ulla Koch (1955) is a German artistic gymnastic coach (women) and one of the most successful coaches in Germany. She became a national coach for the German Gymnastics Federation in 2005 and held this position until 2021. In this period of time she won 36 international medals with her athletes at World Championships, Olympic Games (Beijing 2008, Rio de Janeiro 2016), European Championships (junior and seniors), European Youth Olympic Festival EYOF, European Games.
Ulla is known for not only taking care of the gymnasts’ sporting needs, but also for always focussing on people and their personalities. With her warm manner, she has helped women’s gymnastics in Germany to develop strongly over the last 10 years. In 2016, she received the Gender Equality Award of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) for her great commitment to equality between men and women in sport.
In 2020, she received the IOC Coaches Lifetime Achievement Award and ended her career with the German Gymnastics Federation in 2021. Since November 2023 she has been Head Coach of the Belgium national team.
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
Guri Knotten (1974) has been Director for the Nordic Disciplines by Swiss-Ski since 2022. From 2010 until 2014 she was head coach for the men’s cross country team in Switzerland and led the team in the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. She will share her experiences from this period and focus especially of the power of a team and how to deal with unexpected challenges.
Guri has professional experience in business and sport consulting, and her education includes beside sport and coaching also business and leadership from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She worked 15 years as manager for Marit Björgen, the most decorated winter Olympian of all times.
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
During his time as Director of Performance in the International Centre of Athletic Training (Spain, 2006), Jérôme Koral is both a researcher and a coach. After a successful Olympic campaign – including a gold medal in 2008 – he was hired as an Associate Professor at the Catholic University of Valencia, continuing his collaborations with several international sportsmen from tennis, moto GP, basketball, triathlon and others.
In 2017, Jérôme was invited by the University of Calgary, Canada as Visiting Professor, then moved to France as a researcher in 2018. Since 2021, he is a researcher in the French national Institute of sport expertise and performance, where he coordinates the master’s degree in sports science and the European elite strength and conditioning course. His motto is “Think differently and train differently.”
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
Monika Kurath is Switzerland’s first female medal winner at the World Judo Championships. After her career as an athlete, Monika worked for 13 years as a national judo coach and was also responsible for the education of judo coaches in the Swiss sports promotion program Youth + Sport.
Today, Monika is in charge of the highest level of education for coaches working in competitive and elite sport (in various sports) in Switzerland. Beside she is also Performance Director at Swiss Wrestling Federation and works as a mental coach in different sports.
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
As CEO of the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC), Lorraine Lafrenière leads Canada’s Coaching Education Partnership with the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) which is complemented by initiatives in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Safe Sport along with the profession of coaching.
Her career spans more than 30 years within the national sport system which includes roles as CEO of Canoe Kayak Canada, Cycling Canada as well as leadership roles with the Canadian Olympic Committee and Canadian Paralympic Committee.
Lorraine has participated in more than a dozen Olympic or Paralympic Games in various leadership capacities. She was twice named to the Canadian Women in Sport Top 20 most influential women in Canada in 2014 and 2015.
Internationally, Lorraine is a Board Member of the International Council for Coaching Excellence and Chairs its Ethics Committee, and she also sits on the Education Commission for Panam Sports. She is also a member of the Singapore’s CoachSG Safe Sport Advisory Panel.
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
Dr Sergio Lara-Bercial is a Professor of Sport Coaching at Leeds Beckett University in the UK and the Vice-President for Strategy and Development for the International Council for Coaching Excellence and Sport Coaching Europe. He has published widely on a variety of sport-related topics including high-performance, youth sport and coach development. Sergio is also the co-author of acclaimed book Learning from Serial Winning Coaches: Caring Determination (Routledge, 2023). Sergio is recognised globally and consults for multiple high-level organisations such as the IOC, Nike, UEFA and FIBA. He is also a former international basketball coach for Great Britain and has coached national league for over 25 years winning 19 National Titles with both male and female teams.
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
Lothar Linz is one of Germany’s leading sports psychologists. He has been counselling athletes, teams and coaches in elite sport for more than 25 years. The athletes he has counselled have won more than 75 medals at international championships (European Championships, World Championships) and the Olympic Games. At the Games in Paris, eight of the athletes he coached will also be competing for medals (fencing, hockey, wrestling, cycling, beach volleyball). He himself took part in 3 Olympic Games as a sports psychologist.
He is one of the managing directors of Coaching Competence Cooperation, a sports psychology consultancy that is also active in the business sector, where he trains managers. For several years, he also worked as a coach for GSG 9, the special forces of the German Federal Police.
Lothar is the new Director of the Coaches Academy in Cologne which is responsible for the highest level of coach education in Germany. Many of today’s national coaches have studied here.
Lothar Linz is regarded as an expert in mental processes in sport and particularly as a specialist in the development of team processes. He has also written a book on this subject (“Erfolgreiches Teamcoaching”).
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
After his skating career, Jeroen Otter (1964) coached Team USA at the 1994 Games to Olympic gold. After six years in the USA the Dutchman returned to Europe to use his knowledge and expertise to coach athletes from smaller ice-skating communities such as Belgium, New Zealand, Latvia, and Israel to reach the top. In 2022, with 30 years of coaching experience, he finished his career. The last 12 years he guided Team Netherlands to numerous amounts of European, World and Olympic titles. Memorable was his athlete winning a gold and bronze medal within 24 hours in two different disciplines.
Even after 9 Olympic Games, Otter never lost focus what needs to be done to become successful and remain sustainable in performance. Currently he works for the Dutch Olympic Team coaching other Olympic coaches in their quest to succeed.
Otter is looking forward to sharing his insights into the coaching profession based on various themes.
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
Currently, Tommi Pärmäkoski is working as a High Performance Manager at Finnish Olympic Committee. Tommi has a strong background working in elite level sports as a strength and conditioning coach gaining diverse experience in elite level sports throughout his interesting career. Tommi worked as a performance coach for Sebastian Vettel (former F1 4-time World Champion), strength and conditioning coach for Team Finland in volleyball and coach for two different SM-league elite level hockey teams (Pelicans and Tappara). Additionally, he has been involved in coaching/mentoring teams behind Olympic athletes and Olympic/World Championships medalists in individual sports such as cross country, track&field, swimming, and judo.
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
Patrick Roux was a national judo coach in France from 1991 to 1998. After a stint in the teaching and educational research sector for the training of teachers and coaches, Patrick resumed his coaching career in 2008 in Great Britain, as Head Coach for the Women’s and Men’s Olympic teams in preparation for the London Olympics, a high performance management position where he was able to put his vision and training philosophy into practice for the first time. Recruited in the wake by the manager of the Russian Olympic team, this international adventure continued for two additional Olympiads until 2021. The discovery of amazing lands or ancestral cultures of struggles and training merged with the principles of great judo.
Back at the Institut National du Sport de l’Expertise et de la Performance, Patrick continues to share and transmit his immense experience to new generations of coaches. He is also the author of three major books: The Art of Judo – January 2014; Cognitive training and activity analysis – June 2021; The reverse of our medals – April 2023. He has also written numerous columns in the specialized journal l’Esprit du judo.
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
Former teacher at the University of PARIS V René Descartes, Frédéric Sadys joined the Institut National des Sports de l’Expertise et de la performance in 2003. Frédéric is the first co-director of the Master’s degree, Training of the High Level Athlete. He took responsibility in 2009 of the Diploma of Higher State of Youth, Popular Education and Sport mention sports training (DESJEPS).
Frédéric actively leads the highest level of state diploma for training in partnership with fifteen national sports federations for the training of high level coaches. Frédéric is also the Director of the Executive Master, High Performance Coach, contributing to the essential continuing education of senior sports managers.
As a swimming coach, Frédéric has brought a large number of elite young swimmers to the finals or on the national podiums. He has been a member of the Board of the International Council for Coaching Excellence since 2013. Frédéric’s motto is “We don’t train just to train, we organize training to create performance.”
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
Corentin Segalen is Head of Sports Integrity at ANJ and coordinator of the French platform against the manipulation of sports competitions. In 2021 he was elected Chair of the Group of Copenhagen, the international network of national platforms and re-elected in 2023. After studying History and Criminal Justice Policy at the Sorbonne and the London School of Economics, he was an assistant to a Member of the European Parliament, then to a Member of Parliament before becoming the parliamentary and diplomatic adviser to the Minister of Sport in 2012. He joined the Gambling Regulatory Authority in 2015.
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
After completing her PhD in 2004 at the University of Potsdam on the personality development of elite youth athletes, Dr. Ilka Seidel set up a research and transfer centre for children and youth sport at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and was its Director from 2005-2009. After successfully completing her habilitation (post-doctoral lectureship qualification), she was in 2010 awarded the venia legendi for sports science at the KIT.
In 2011, Ilka moved to the Institute for Applied Training Science (IAT) in Leipzig as Head of the Department for “power-sports and technical acrobatic sports”. In 2017, she was appointed Director of the Olympic Training Centre of Lower Saxony in Hannover. There Ilka and her team of experts were responsible for providing the best conditions, support and service for elite youth and top athletes.
In 2021, Ilka moved to the High Performance Sports Division of the German Olympic Sports Federation (DOSB) as Director of Scientific Network for High Performance Sports, Dual Career for Elite Athletes and Human Resources Development in High Performance Sports. She is still involved in university teaching and in-service training for future top coaches – fields for which she was appointed adjunct professor at KIT in 2016. In addition, she remains committed to deepening the practical connection between sports science and high performance sports in Germany.
Ilka has extensive experience in the organisation and management of institutions for high performance sports and is intensively involved in the further development of high performance sports in Germany.
PARALYMPIC SESSION, 5-6 SEPTEMBER
Bill Tait is an experienced performance leader with over two decades of success at the highest level. Currently the Director of Performance Systems & Paralympic Partnerships at the Australian Sports Commission, Bill played a pivotal role in leading the Australian HP2032+ Win-Well strategy. His extensive background includes coaching Olympic medal-winning rowing crews and developing innovative coaching tools. Known for his authentic and calm demeanor. In his current role Bill is dedicated to breaking down barriers for para athletes and leveraging the Australian system to help them to reach their full potential.
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
Pim Verschuuren is a researcher at the University of Rennes 2 (France), specialised on the subjects of regulation, governance and integrity of national and international sports. He completed a PhD (2017-2020) on the implementation and effectiveness of reporting/whistleblowing mechanisms in the international sports sector. He also accompanies public and private organisations in their integrity risk management, internal regulatory reviews and policy advising and, in particular, has been working for 10 years in the fight against the manipulation of sports manipulation (“match-fixing”), through private research, education and awareness raising programmes.
PARALYMPIC SESSION, 5-6 SEPTEMBER
Dr Christoph Weber has been working for the German Disabled Sports Federation/National Paralympic Committee (DBS) in the role of national coach for science since 2021 and coordinates the support needs of the partners in the science network system within the para sports. He is also the contact person for university research projects in which the association is involved as a cooperation partner. Previously, Christoph Weber conducted research at the Chair of Training Science and Sports Informatics at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and completed his doctorate on the subject of sport-specific performance diagnostics in Paralympic sports.
OLYMPIC SESSION, 6-7 AUGUST
Mark Wolf was elected to the Hall of Fame after a successful international career as a professional floorball player in Switzerland and Sweden. He worked as a coach at various levels from junior to elite and also gained several years of coaching experience as a successful Paralympic coach in wheelchair racing before becoming Performance Manager and Head of Education at Swiss Floorball.
He began his career as a coach while still an active Athlete, working as a Y+S programme leader before taking over responsibility for practical sport in the BSc at the Swiss Federal Institute of Sport in Magglingen (EHSM). For the past ten years, Mark has been Head for Coach Education in Switzerland and thus for the training of coaches in Swiss competitive and elite sport. Among other things, he is responsible for the Olympic Coach Programme (OCP) – a training programme for Olympic coaches in preparation for Paris 2024.
Mark has extensive experience in coach education and is committed to the development of Elite sport in Switzerland.
Additional speakers will be announced soon.