Max Bishop Awarded FAI Centenary Medal

LAUSANNE 22.01.2010 – Retiring FAI Secretary-General Max Bishop was presented with the FAI's Centenary Medal, to mark his 17 years of distinguished service, at a dinner in Chexbres, near Lausanne, on January 22 attended by Mrs Angela Bishop, members of the FAI Executive Board, incoming Secretary General Stéphane Desprez and Sports & Development Director Jean-Marc Badan.

In making the presentation, FAI President Pierre Portmann quipped that warmest thanks were also due to Angela for leaving Max at FAI's disposal for so long!

Knowing Max, it will be a busy retirement: he was back in (unofficial) action on February 16, proposing a vote of thanks to Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier after a talk to the Oxford & Cambridge Society in Geneva.

Angela & Max Bishop "You showed the importance of setting high goals and taking calculated risks – something which is so important to society, but increasingly rare!" noted Max in his tribute.

"I was just a civil servant who did his job – and was not afraid of heights" replied Nicollier, who took part in four NASA space-shuttle missions and received FAI's Yuri Gagarin Gold Medal in 1994.