Uganda Olympic Committee president William Blick is among the few individuals that are passionate and enthusiastic about development of sports both locally and internationally.
A former rugby player and administrator, who is in his last term at the UOC helm, was last year elevated to the status of International Olympic Committee (IOC) member.
For his great contribution to sports, Blick has been rewarded with the highest presidential honour of Italy to a non-Italian by the country’s President H.E Sergio Mattarella for championing various community development initiatives of Italian interests through sports.
Blick has worked closely with the outgoing Italian Ambassador to Uganda H.E Domenico Fornara on various initiatives including the recent visit of Sampdoria coaches to Uganda to an internally displaced camp in West Nile region.
He has also helped promote many community-based Italian projects in Uganda; thus the award which was presented to him by Fornana last week.
The First Son Lt. Gen. Muhozi Kainerugaba, in his tweet to congratulate Blick said that: Congratulations to my brother William Blick on achieving this high honor from the President of Italy. Well done William for always pushing yourself to achieve excellence in every field.I thank His Excellence Fornara for awarding it to him.” The outgoing Italian envoy said that the President of the Order of the star of Italy, having listened to the order committee, based on the proposal of the Ministry of foreign affairs to grant the honor to Blick with the power to bear the symbols of the order.
“It is an honor and pleasure to award, on behalf of the Italy President, the title of Officer of the Order of the Star (Stella d’Italia) to William Blick for outstanding efforts in promoting sport and Uganda-Italy relations,” Fornara noted.
Blick, who became the first Ugandan to be accorded such honors, revealed that he was very grateful for the award. “Such appreciation by world’s biggest personalities is what motivates me to work hard and leave a legacy. I thank the outgoing Italy Ambassador for the support and my team at UOC because together we have achieved,” noted Blick, who replaced Rogers Dungu as UOC President.
Meanwhile, Blick met boxing fraternity on Saturday at NCS, Lugogo to brief them about the changes in the international boxingadministration and organisation. Top on the reforms, the Olympics boxing and qualifiers will be organised by IOC after suspension of AIBA leadership while professional boxers will be allowed to partake in Olympics qualifiers to battle for slots starting with the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
