The International Canoe Federation made an official visit to Alibaba Cloud’s global headquarters in Hangzhou, where leading figures from both organisations looked at ways to deepen their AI-driven collaboration.
ICF President Thomas Konietzko, Vice President Cecilia Farias, Treasurer Li Xin and Secretary General Richard Pettit recently visited Alibaba Cloud’s Campus in the Chinese city.
The ICF leadership team were given a tour of the immersive and interactive campus that details the evolution of Alibaba Cloud, which is the official Cloud Services Partner of the Olympic Games.
Discussions centred around a series of topics that aim to strengthen the collaboration between the two organisations.
Among those included optimising data storage and analysis through Alibaba Cloud to enhance event management efficiency and exploring AI applications such as athlete training data analysis and judging systems.
They also looked at expanding the partnership in areas like esports, immersive spectator experiences and intelligent live broadcastings as well as AI referees in future events to enhance the spectacle and fairness of competitions while effectively reducing operational costs.
“Alibaba Cloud is leading the way in AI technologies, and we are excited about the possibilities of incorporating them in ways that can take our sport to the next level,” said Mr Pettit.
“It was fascinating to discuss potential opportunities with Alibaba Cloud at its impressive headquarters in Hangzhou as we seek to deepen our collaboration.
“AI will play a crucial role in ensuring our sport is fit for future, making a transformative impact to our events and our organisation as a whole.
“It is exciting to explore AI-powered officiating that could minimise human error and AI-driven post-race analysis to offer detailed insights for our athletes and coaches.”
The official visit in late February builds on the successful collaboration between the ICF and Alibaba Cloud that was established with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in October 2023.
Last year, the ICF and Alibaba Cloud signed the “AI-Driven Sustainability Strategy Cooperation” to leverage AI technologies to promote the green and sustainable development of paddle sports events.
Mr Konietzko was a panellist at the Alibaba Cloud Global Summit in Paris, France, in May 2024 where he underlined how AI will support the delivery of climate-positive actions at the ICF’s events.
He said that Alibaba Cloud’s AI-driven technologies can help to effectively measure, forecast, analyse and optimise the carbon footprint of the ICF’s competitions and operations.
During the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the ICF and Alibaba Cloud jointly showcased their collaborative achievements in advancing sustainability goals and expanding the digitalisation of canoeing with an exhibition of VR Kayak Esports at the International Broadcasting Centre.
George Zhang, Director of Customer Success Centre at Alibaba Cloud International Business, was among the key figures at the Alibaba Cloud’s headquarters to meet with the ICF’s leadership team.
He was also joined by Liyun Sun, Business Technology Engineer at Alibaba Cloud Europe, Xun Yang, SR Solution Architect at Alibaba DEU, Bella Huang, Marketing Lead at Alibaba Cloud Europe, and Lindon Gao, Marketing Manager at Alibaba Cloud Europe.
“We look forward to working closely with the ICF to enable more sustainable and intelligent events with our AI-powered technologies which have been widely applied in major sport events including the Olympic Games,” said Mr Zhang.
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