[truebluefan]

Lausanne, 31th October 2007 – Andrea Zorzi, the former Italian Volleyball World Champion in 1990 and 1994, was the FIVB representative athlete at the 3rd IOC International Athletes’ Forum in Dubai, last week.

The meeting was organized to support athletes at the end of their career, exploiting their value. The main aim was to reinforce the athletes’ world network, considered a top priority for sport. Zorzi was involved in one of the three working groups, which was focused on athletes’ involvement in the Olympic Games preparation.

After two days of meetings, a group of world top medal winners enjoyed sports facilities in Dubai playing a super VIP Beach Volleyball tournament: Beach Volleyball is one of the newest Olympic Sports, but its popularity is outstanding even among other sports champions.

Different teams led by former USA spiker Bob Ctvrtlik, Brazilian Volleyball star and two times Olympic Champion Mauricio Lima and Andrea Zorzi fought friendly for this very peculiar medal. Pole-vaulter Sergey Bubka, high jumper Dick Fosbury, track and field specialists Hicham El Guerrouj and Frank Fredericks, swimmer Alexander Popov and many other world top athletes used the yellow and blue Mikasa to share their talents, using Beach Volleyball skills as a common sports language.