Welcome Letter from ICG President Torsten Rasch
44 Years of the International Children's Games
On the 5th of June 1968, the first International Children's Games took place in Celje, Slovenia. On the initiative of physical education teacher, Profesor Metod Klemenc, young male and female children between the age of 12 and 15 meet from Belgrade (Serbia and Montenegro), Brno (Chech Republic), Celje (Slovenia), Graz (Austria), Kranj (Slovenia), Lausanne (Swiss), Trbovlje (Slovenia), Udine (Italy) and Zagreb (Croatia) meet at that time for an Track and Field competition.
On the basis of the realization that a happy future for children is in a great degree dependent on the understanding, tolerance and respect they have for each other, and because of the realization that sports especially represent a significant function where the fellowship of children of different nationalities is concerned, the sports officals from that time: Prof. Metod Klemenc from Celje, as President and Prof. Ovido Bernes from Udine, Dr. Josef List from Graz, Dr. Robert Sander from Munich, Emmanuel Braunschweig from Lausanne, and Zoran Naprudnik from Ljubljana, as members meet together and decided to establish an International Committee of the Children's Games - with the basic goal and task being - through the encouragement of sports meets and competitions to enable the children of different countries, with their different languages, origins and outlooks, to meet at different types of sports, to practice friendship and understanding and to help to secure world peace and follow the Olympic ideals.
Message from IOC
A message from the former President of the International Olympic Committee,
Juan Antonio Samaranch
(17 July 1920 – 21 April 2010)
on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Committee of the International Children's Games in 1998.