Germany, April 15, 2013: Atos, an international IT services company, today announced that it has signed a contract extension with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to be its Worldwide Paralympic IT Partner through to the end of 2016. Atos began its active involvement with the Paralympic Movement in 2002 and has been the IT Partner of the 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008 Paralympic Games, before becoming the official Worldwide Paralympic IT Partner of the IPC in 2008.
The contract extension will cover the forthcoming Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games and the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. Atos business technologists will also provide the same high level technology expertise and support for over 20 other major para-sport events including July’s IPC Athletics World Championships, August’s IPC Swimming World Championships and October’s IPC Shooting European Championships.
In addition, Atos will continue its engagement in future joint fundraising activities and its commitment to the Agitos Foundation will remain in place as part of its contribution to progress and enhance society through social innovation – which includes youth empowerment and inclusion. Atos sponsorship of the European Para Snow Sport Youth Circuit, via the Agitos Foundation, is a great example of their commitment to power progress of society at large.
Patrick Adiba, CEO Iberia, Major Events and Olympic and Paralympic Games at Atos, said: “At Atos, we strongly believe in and support the Paralympic Movement and are delighted to be able to extend our long term relationship through to 2016. Our business technologists will continue to write history for the Paralympic Movement. This helps the IPC to stage world class events and bring the sporting excellence of Paralympians to an international audience.”
Xavier Gonzalez, IPC Chief Executive Officer, said: “There is no doubt that the expertise and experience of Atos Business technologists has had a positive impact on the development of the Paralympic Movement. Atos has helped the IPC to grow and offer better services to our members, National Paralympic Committees, athletes and competition organisers. We are delighted to extend our partnership with Atos and look forward to working together to further strengthen the organisation.”
Atos will work with the IPC to see how the latest technology innovations, such as the SMART player application that it developed for the London 2012 Paralympic Games can be further enhanced to help bring Paralympic sport to more people than ever before. The SMART player application enabled those watching live swimming and wheelchair basketball on www.paralympic.org to view real-time results tickers, statistics, biographies, news and social media – all in one integrated and synchronised window. It also simplified the user’s interests and gives specific and relevant results per sport, similar to the ones available to commentators inside the venues.
Under the agreement Atos will make Information Technology products and services available to the IPC and to the different sport events, including systems to process accreditations for all those involved in the events, timing and scoring services, the SMART player and the systems and services to distribute the results to the world’s media in less than a second. Atos will also continue to manage and run the IPC website – www.paralympic.org – the most important communication channel to promote Paralympic sports, athletes and news to a global audience. The new site, developed by Atos, was launched in February 2012 and saw visitor numbers in 2012 increase by 489 per cent on 2011. —- IPC
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