On the evening of November 5, Beijing time, the 23rd Asian Handball Federation Congress was held online, and a new (2021-2025 term of office) leadership body of the Asian Handball Federation was elected through collective voting. Sheikh Ahmed Fahd Al-Sabah was re-elected as the president of the Asian Handball Federation, and Wang Tao, president of the Chinese Handball Association, was elected vice chairman of the Asian Handball Federation. This is the second time that China has become a member of the leadership team of the Asian Players Federation after a one-term term, which is of great significance for China's handball to enter a higher international stage in the future. Hassan Mustafa, President of the International Hand Federation, some members of the AFC Council and representatives of the AFC Member Association attended the conference.
After being elected, Wang Tao expressed the hope that in the future, he would continuously improve the international influence of Chinese handball and contribute more to the development of international handball. At the same time, Wang Tao also said that Chinese handball will enter the ranks of the world's handball powers in the next 15 years, which requires the efforts of every handball player, and hopes that everyone will unite as one, work together, be the leader of the international handball society, and make due contributions to the construction of a sports power in 2035.
Wang Tao was elected president at the National Congress of the Chinese Handball Association in September 2018. It was then proposed to gradually achieve the strategic goal of a strong handball country in three stages, and launched a series of measures, which led to the strategic development planning of the project, the construction of the national team, the professionalization of the league, the promotion of youth handball, international exchanges and many other aspects of the project in recent years, which has been widely concerned by the international handball community.
These measures include: at the strategic planning level and international exchanges, with the goal of entering the ranks of the world's handball powers by 2035, formulating three 5-year development plans for the association, promoting the substantive and market-oriented reform of the association; formulating the "Overall Plan for the Promotion of Health in Chinese Handball", deepening the integration of sports and education, and serving a healthy China; and formulating a number of industry standards to promote the marketization process of China's handball development. With the support of the International Hand Federation, it has reached a comprehensive strategic cooperation with the Russian Hand Association, and in the future, it is planned to send the national team to Russia for a long-term exchange competition.
In addition, in terms of national team construction, it is necessary to lead the national female players out of the trough (winning the runner-up of the Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia to rush into the Olympic Games has been effective); sending the national male players to Croatia to participate in the European high-level league, while focusing on the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, implementing the strategy of off-generation training and building a national youth handball echelon. In order to promote the professionalization of Chinese handball leagues, the Chinese Men's Handball Super League has been established in 2019, which should innovate the league mechanism, take multiple measures at the same time, and directly participate in the u22/u24 national club teams to promote the improvement of the level of competition with league reform. It also attaches great importance to the promotion of youth handball, innovates and launches 5-a-side handball to promote the promotion of handball campuses; carries out children's handball sports, and uses the handball into the Wanyuan public welfare activity as the carrier to make millions of children fall in love with sports; and promotes the joint construction of youth handball popularization and promotion layout with "training, teaching, events, training, exchange and cultural dissemination" as one of the fulcrum - China Handball School.
According to the data: Wang Tao, female, Han ethnicity, born in Beijing on June 14, 1967, a member of the Communist Party of China, graduated from Osaka University of Education in Japan, with a master's degree. Wang Tao is a former famous handball player in Asia, who has won the title of international athlete, was the leader and coach of the Chinese handball national team, and is currently the director of the Handball and Baseball Sports Management Center of the General Administration of Sport of the People's Republic of China, the vice chairman of the Asian Handball Federation, the chairman of the Chinese Handball Association, and the chairman of the Chinese Billiards Association.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Liu Ailin
Editor/Zhou Xueshuai