In July Jyväskylä will host Europes largest annual congress in sport science. The 12th Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science (ECSS) will bring approximately 1 700 experts in sport and health sciences to Jyväskylä, of whom 90 per cent will be international visitors. The congress is organised by the University of Jyväskyläs Department of Biology of Physical Activity and the Foundation for the Promotion of Physical Culture and Health (LIKES).
This cross-disciplinary congress attention will go into current issues from the perspective of physical fitness and training, suggest an answer to the question Why exercise? and examine research data relating to genes, such as the possibilities presented by gene manipulation. In addition consideration will be given to how sport for health could be sold to the broad population, and views aired on the subject of motor control learning.
ECSS-Jyväskylä 2007 will feature roughly 500 oral and about 700 poster presentations. Over 1 300 abstracts in total have been submitted for the congress.
The main venue for the gathering will be Jyväskylä Paviljonki congress and trade fair centre. Some of the events will take place next door at Jyväskylä Polytechnics IT-Dynamo building.
Jyväskylä is the first place to host the ECSS congress for a second time. The previous gathering in Jyväskylä took place in 2000. The congress will serve to support the University of Jyväskyläs international research activity. Science knows no borders, it simply glides across them, the Congress Coordinator, Professor Janne Avela, is quick to point out.
The annual ECSS congress is the trade mark of ECSS in its successful dedication to advancing knowledge and science. ECSS aims at promoting science and research at the European level and worldwide. It is dedicated to the generation and dissemination of scientific knowledge concerning motivation, attitudes, values, responses, adaptations, performance and health aspects of sport and physical activity. l
Photo: My favourite hobby is sleeping, and I get energy from that, too, says aerobics champion Tiia Piili.
By Tommi Salo