Shymbulak to host competitions among journalists from 30 countries

In the Shymbulak mountain resort in March 2024, the annual, 69th meeting of the authoritative international club of ski journalists SCIJ (SkiClub Internationaldes Journalistes) will be held with the support of the KazakhTourism national company. The memorandum on holding the meeting was signed yesterday by Rinat Abdrakhmanov, General Director of Shymbulak Mountain Resort, Frederic Vallas, President of the SCIJ Club, and Irina Bazhenova, President of the Kazakhstan Branch of the International SCIJ Club.

“We are proud to be partnering with the SCIJ Journalists’ Club, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. We are well acquainted with the entire Kazakh SCIJ team and are grateful to the journalists of this club for their support and constant participation in our press events. Shymbulak specialists will do their best to ensure that the competitions and meetings of the club’s international colleagues are held at the highest level,” said Rinat Abdrakhmanov, general director of the Shymbulak mountain resort.

The SCIJ International Club (https://scij.ski) has been in existence for 68 years, uniting journalists from 31 countries of the world. The founder of the club, Frenchman Gilles de La Roque, a journalist and skier originally from Courchevel, at the height of the Cold War in 1955, put forward the idea that disagreements between governments should not prevent journalists and athletes from communicating freely. This has become the motto of the SCIJ: to promote the expansion of contacts and interaction between journalists based on professional and sports interests.

Since then, every year traditional annual meetings of club members are held at the best mountain resorts in the world, in which about 150 journalists from different countries take part. The program of such meetings includes competitions in alpine and cross-country skiing, as well as discussions on political and professional topics, acquaintance with the country and its achievements, friendly communication and cultural exchange. Each of the member countries of the SCIJ club considers it an honor to host colleagues, and already 74 mountain resorts around the world have hosted ski journalists. In recent years, hospitable meeting hosts have been the Baqueira-Beret resort in Spain, Sestriere in Italy, the ValCenisVanoise and Vald’Arly resorts in France, Rosa Khutor in Russia, Pamporovo in Bulgaria. In 2023, the next meeting of the club was held in Canada at the Marble Mountain resort, where the right of Kazakhstan to host the next meeting of the SCIJ club in 2024 was confirmed.

It is worth noting that mountain resorts around the world are trying to do everything to hold a meeting of this authoritative club on their territory, as this gives a large number of publications in international media and Internet coverage not only about the mountain resort itself, but also about culture, history , the identity of the country where the event is held.

“We welcome the desire of the Kazakh club SCIJ to host this important event in their country and thereby strengthen the position of Kazakhstan within the club and among the international community of fellow journalists. Your country has excellent potential for mountain tourism, I am sure that all members of our club will be very interested in visiting Kazakhstan, trying out its ski slopes and learning more about its modern life and people,” said SCIJ Club President Frederic Wallas at the signing of the Memorandum.

“We are very pleased that in 2024 Kazakhstan will host the annual meeting of the international club of skiing journalists SCIJ. This significant event confirms the growing reputation of our country in the international community and recognizes our efforts in the development of MICE tourism. Attracting international MICE events is one of the important areas of our work, which contributes to the inflow of investments, the creation of new jobs and the development of related industries,” said Talgat Amanbayev, Chairman of the Board of the Kazakh Tourism national company.

For the first time, Kazakhstan took part in the annual meeting of the SCIJ club in 2012 in Turkey as a guest, and in 2013 the Kazakh team of three people was officially accepted into the SCIJ at a meeting in Italy. At the club’s general assembly at the Pontedi Legno resort, colleagues from 34 countries unanimously voted to accept the RK team into their ranks.

Over the 10 years of existence of SCIJ Kazakhstan, the number of participants has grown to 40 people. They represent such media as KTK TV channels, Channel 1 Eurasia, newspapers Vremya, Kursiv, Zhaskazak, New Generation, MK in Kazakhstan, news agencies and electronic media Tengrinews.kz, Prosports.kz, “ Adyrna”, AzattyqRuhy, KzNews.kz and others. The main task of the club is to promote an active lifestyle, involve journalists, and through them the population, in winter sports, as well as promote the tourism potential of Kazakhstan in the international arena.

“The competitions that take place within the framework of the SCIJ meeting are considered an informal world championship among journalists in ski disciplines. Our journalists train hard and will be ready to compete for medals of the highest standard, – said Irina Bazhenova, president of the Kazakhstan branch of the international club SCIJ. – And I want to say “Koprakmet!” to our partners – the Shymbulak mountain resort and the KazakhTourism National Company for their support and faith in the team of Kazakhstani journalists. In cooperation with Shymbulak, we conduct our training and competitions, and professional expertise and financial support from KazakhTourism allow us to set such high goals for ourselves.”

The partner for this meeting is the National Company KazakhTourism. Representatives of the company have already participated in the meetings of the SCIJ club and actively supported the application of Kazakh journalists to hold the event in Kazakhstan. The partner of the SCIJ Kazakhstan club is OrbisAuto with the Porsche brand.

According to the Kazakh SCIJ team, Kazakhstani journalists Ruslan Sarseev, Egor Ilyin, Srail Smail and Natalya Kachalova have excellent chances for medals in cross-country skiing competitions. In the giant slalom discipline, the Kazakh team is pinning its hopes on Tatyana Nikolaeva and Anastasia Naumetskaya.

During the three days spent in Kazakhstan, the president of the SCIJ club, Frederic Vallas, and the general secretary of the club, Bruno Schmitz, got acquainted with our capital Astana and the city of the event Almaty, visited Shymbulak and the Alatau ski and biathlon complex, where the competition is planned to be held . They admitted that what they saw exceeded their expectations: beautiful mountains, modern, clean and green cities, dynamic and hospitable people, comfortable conditions for tourists – all this gives confidence that the 69th SCIJ meeting, which will be held for the first time in Central Asia, will be successful and all participants will have something to tell about Kazakhstan in their reports.