President and general secretary of the Malta Judo Federation working at the Rio Olympic Games

President Envic Galea has been active in the International Field of Sports for decades. Since 1991 he has been sitting on the Executive Committee of the European Judo Union. Today he is serving as general secretary and chairman of the medical commission.

In 2013, Marius Vizer, president of the IJF asked Envic to set up the International Judo Federation Academy. In August 2013 he formed the Academy and still runs it as its director. By now, the Academy is handling the coach education of 65 federations including Georgia, Turkey, the USA, Zambia, Australia, Hungary, Mexico and others.

General secretary Louisa Galea has followed his international footsteps and spent nine years working for the EJU in the Secretariat and in Marketing. In 2013, she moved to the International Judo Federation, where she is Protocol manager and coordinates logistics for the IJF at all Grand Prix, Grand Slam and World Championships.

Envic and Louisa have been invited to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games by the International Federation: Envic as an international technical officer and Louisa as staff. These will be Envic’s fourth Olympic Games on behalf of the IJF and Louisa’s second, having volunteered at the London 2012 Games. This is a big honour for the Malta Judo Federation, to have two of its officials at the Games on behalf of its International Federation.

This October, the Malta Judo Federation will be hosting the World Kata Championships for the second time, for which the Maltese Kata Couples, Ivan Espos- ito and Tiziana Apap, and Joe Muscat and Joe Bonello, are preparing at full speed.

Many other projects are in the pipeline for Maltese Judo starting this September. The new Dojo in Pembroke is up and running and the Federation is getting ready for all these new exciting initiatives.