Addressing a medal awarding ceremony at the Maps Hall at the Prime Minister’s office, the government head underlined that Albanian government is committed to provide support to sport champions.

“Today we can openly state that Albania, a small country and not part of the rich nations club, offers its champions and the sportsmen and sportswomen willing to sacrifice to become champions, a kind of support that a few countries allocate and this is best illustrated by the growing number of promising young sportsmen, who are motivated more than ever before and are increasingly confident that they are no longer alone,” the Premier said in his remarks.

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Welcome back again to celebrate yet another champion, the latest powerful example and a role model for everyone, primarily for the young girls and boys in our homeland.

However, Alvin’s case is a very specific one, because in addition to reaching to the top of a tough and challenging international competition in his sport discipline, he is also delivers health care to patients as a physician on daily basis in Switzerland, a country with the highest standards in the world and where the professionals, that of the physician in this case, are among the world’s best.

No championship medal is awarded for the latter, yet I am pretty sure that it wouldn’t be a surprise at all if Alvin was to snatch gold and be declared a champion also in medicine. For this reason he has set an absolutely inspiring and incredible example for everyone, for everyone who is ready to sacrifice and be totally committed despite the difficulties and who lives, breathes and is nurtured with the idea of reaching to the top and becoming a winner.

I have been lucky enough to have met Alvin as a guest in my Podcast and I was really impressed while listening him speaking about the passionate love for the homeland, for the national red and black flag as a second skin – and this is not rhetoric at all, but a true and tangible fact for anyone who happens to talk with Alvin and who listens to him talk about his relations with the country, history of his people, the dreams, hopes and with the ambitions of the Albanians over the centuries.

I was really impressed by the manner he speaks about his parents and the way he describes his mother and father, who have supported him throughout his career as a sportsman. We host such ceremonies to express our gratitude to champions, but also to provide others with the opportunity to take a bit of their positive energy, to take a little bit of their example, to take a little bit of their strength of confidence, readiness and determination to overcome any difficulty, because until the national flag is raised and the national anthem is sung it is not just what the rest of us see during a sports competition, but is a whole story that no one sees but the one who is part of it.

Alvin told me he sleeps just four hours, if I am not mistaken, and he goes to bed thinking how to wake up as soon as possible to go on with another day by fulfilling his mission as a doctor and by pursuing his passion of a champion sportsman. I think it rarely happens that you meet someone who is as if made with hands in terms of how one should become a role model in a trade, in a sports discipline and how all of these pay off with the triumph. It happens very rarely! And I feel very privileged and lucky enough that today I am standing on this very podium to express Alvin and his family the gratitude, respect and definitely our readiness to help as much as we can, not only Alvin, but all our sportsman and sportswomen, who and I don’t think I am exaggerating, but they enjoy completely different conditions now also thanks to the close cooperation with the Albanian Olympic Committee and today we can openly state that Albania, a small country and not part of the rich nations club, offers its champions and the sportsmen and sportswomen willing to sacrifice to become champions, a kind of support that a few countries allocate and this is best illustrated by the growing number of promising young sportsmen, who are motivated more than ever before and are increasingly confident that they are no longer alone .

Fidel said we have probably lost 37 Olympic medals in the’90s, in the early 2000s and onward in the sense that the talented and passionate Albanian sportsman and sportswomen, have been sometimes forced to run under the national flag of other countries and have been forced to go to the limits of their strength and passion and leave their homeland to find a second homeland even just to earn a living.

This is no longer the case! On the contrary!

Sportsmen from other countries have chosen Albania as their second homeland, to compete for the red and black jersey and raise our national flag, as they benefit precisely from the very new conditions already created as part of this government support for sports. Alvin doesn’t need to join Albania’s Armed Forces as a champion as he meets all the required criteria to become a member of our Armed Forces, but he doesn’t need to do so as he earns his living as a doctor. However, all the sportsmen and sportswomen who score high in their sport disciplines and accomplish a lot to reach to such high levels, face no longer the dilemma, anxiety and fear for their future once they give up sport. This has actually been the case with prominent Albanian champions in the past as they have found themselves really in very poor living conditions and completely abandoned, since nobody has thought about them. That is a time we need to leave behind and all our champions are now integrated and will be integrated in our Armed Forces in the future to serve until end of their active life and they are all entitled to pension as former servicemen, moreover now that we are constantly increasing funding for our servicemen, delivering on our goal for the wages of the members of Armed Forces to be as high as the wages of servicemen in the NATO members in the region. And we will continue increasing support for them to make them feel respected and rewarded for their sacrifice in serving the Armed Forces of the Republic of Albania.

On the other hand, the new era of sports in schools movement was highlighted at this ceremony. When we took office, physical education in school was abandoned for over 20 years or so in Albania. We reintroduced physical education in the school curricula. It took time and efforts for us to provide and raise due financial means and deliver on this goal and we have now allocated a yearly state budget fund for the Albanian Olympic Committee  to support the sports in schools programme, which has already kicked off with establishment of volleyball and basketball teams for boys and girls in almost every school across the country and such experience is now being expanded to include more sport disciplines for many talented schoolchildren and high school students who are interested in, including weightlifting, wrestling, chess, ping-pong and so on, so that we can make sure for every schoolboy and schoolgirl to engage themselves in sport activities.

Of course, not everyone of them would become a champion, and not everyone will lead a career as professional sportsmen and sportswomen, but it is really important for a country and a society that children, apart from education, be provided with the opportunity to engage in physical activities, join sport teams and spend a part of the day dealing with sport activities as a way for them to grow up stronger, healthier, more aware about their body and their health, and they would definitely become better citizens, more social individuals and better prepared to coexist together with everyone else and to understand the challenges of living with other people.

On the other hand, I am convinced that as we move ahead on this path, we will start seeing the early results of this movement also in our local championships, as well as on an international championship level, as this movement would allow for identification and training of the future talents. This movement will provide everyone the opportunity and allow everyone from Tropoje to Konispol to join in various activities and sport disciplines.

/u.sh/