Eurovets become Euromasters, finally righting a 40-year-old wrong

Logo is updated, too.

Logo is updated, too. But EMA also stands for European Medicines Agency.“

In 1975, the vote was tied: What would they call the worldwide adult age-group governing body? “Masters” and “Veterans” had equal votes. So the tie was broken by a Brit: presiding chairman Jack Fitzgerald of The Association of Veteran Athletes. That’s how WAVA came to be. Later, they thought better of it (worried that “veterans” suggested military vets, hurting their branding and sponsorship potential). So WAVA became WMA. Now the last vestiges of veteranism are gone. The European Veterans Athletics Association has become the European Masters Association. So says the Eurovets site. About time.

Here’s the late August posting:

Veterans in Europe are now Masters

The General Assembly of Izmir voted for the proposal of Germany France and Italy to change the name EVAA to European Master Athletics. Hansjörg Wirz — EA President — was very pleased to see this progress in the Master Athletic Movement. In his speech he pointed out how [important] it is for the Athletic Family to be prepared for the future demands of the society “European Athletics – Your Sport for Life.” EMA family, together with WMA family, and TAF Council handed over the Statue of Nike to Hansjörg Wirz for his strong commitment and support to the Master Athletics.

The Eurotracksters also have published criteria for choosing their annual top masters:

Criteria
1. The ‘EBM’ has to participate during the actual year in EMAC or WMAC.

2. The ‘EBM’ should preferable have beat European and/or World Master Record/Records in at least one event during the actual year.

3. The ‘EBM’ should preferable have been European and/or World Master Champion in at least one event during the actual year.

4. The ‘EBM’ should fairly be superior to other masters in European Championships in at least one event during the actual year.

5. The ‘EBM’ should practice sportsmanship and fair play.

6. The ‘EBM’ should never have been guilty for drug use, is an opponent of drug use. 7. The ’EBM’ can only be awarded once in the same category.

Procedures

An ‘EBM’ is selected by the EMA Award Working Group after a General Assembly and proposes in September every year candidates for ‘EBM’ to the EMA Council (in connection to the “IAAF-/WMA- Best Master”).

The ‘EBM’ – Award Working Group for 2014 – 2017 consists of the Statistician Working Group and the Technical Director of EMA.

The ‘EBM’ is nominated by EMA Council in September every year (three proposals – Male and Female – are selected by the Award Working Group).

The ‘EBM’ is awarded the following year and honoured on the occasion of the next ‘EMA’ championships.

The ’EBM’ will be invited to attend to the ceremony.

The 2013 award winner, BTW, was Sweden’s Mattias Sunneborn, an M40 jumper and multi-eventer who competed in five world championships (1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2001) and two Olympic Games (1996, 2000).

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September 4, 2014

4 Responses

  1. David E. Ortman (M61), Seattle, WA - September 4, 2014

    Ah, yes, about time. I addressed this problem in a National Masters New column back in April 2001.

    http://ortmanmarchand.com/fs11.html

  2. Ken Stone - September 4, 2014

    Best line of David’s column:

    I’ve attempted, with no luck, to come up with a better name than Masters. How does “CEOs”, “Ubermenschen”, “Pioneers”, or the currently trendy “Survivors” sound? “Honey, I’m off to a Survivors meet” has a ring of truth to it, at least.

  3. Quick Silver - September 4, 2014

    Don’t forget that all this onanism applies only to English-speaking countries. For what it’s worth, the Chinese terms in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the PRC translate as roughly “leaders”, “knowledgeable in depth” and “pioneers” respectively.

    Quick Silver
    Hong Kong

  4. Weia Reinboud - September 5, 2014

    😉 In my country it has been ‘veteranen’ and has become ‘masters’ years ago. And so we went form a perfectly understandable native word to a very vague loan word.

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