Violeta Birzniece works as a policy officer in the sport unit of the Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, European Commission. Her main responsibilities are gender equality in sport, Erasmus+ mobility action for sport staff and the European Week of Sport.

Before joining the sport unit in 2021, Violeta worked for 13 years in the field of youth policy and programmes in the European Commission.

She has a bachelor’s degree in international business and a master’s degree in European public administration.

I was fortunate enough to have been raised with the idea that everyone counts. That every individual should be offered all the opportunities to explore their life to the max. That everyone should be treated equally with this principle in mind and everyone, therefore, has the right to be totally included. In society in general this is, unfortunately, not always what we know happens. A variety of so called ‘weaker target-groups’ suffer a serious risk of dropping out or being excluded from society. This is a very sad development and a dark picture of future European society.

However, I believe -or even more, I am convinced- that para sport can lead the way towards a more inclusive society. Sport is in my opinion the most obvious place where inspiring humans, all with their own story, push their abilities beyond all boundaries.

Unlocking the full potential of our Paralympic Movement in Europe is my aim. Together we have accomplished so much and just look at how far we have come already! We can honour the road we have travelled by giving para athletes a grander stage, to enable all European citizens to see our achievements and to enjoy listening to our stories.

My own sport roots lie in snow skiing. After my sports career, I spent more than fifteen years in various sports related administrative roles, as the president of the Dutch Ski Federation, as the vice-president of the Board of the National Olympic Committee, as the president of the NPC of the Netherlands and as the president of the European Paralympic Committee. My close involvement in the preparation of the Paralympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010 is where I saw the power and impact the Paralympic Movement: that everyone counts, that every individual should be offered all the opportunities to explore their life to the max. Since that time, my passion has been to further the development of parasports and organise inspiring strong multis para port events such as the combined European Para Championships. In 2023 the championships were held in Rotterdam and now we are full on track to prepare for the 2027 version; more than ten para sports, about 2.000 para athletes.

I’m also very proud of being part of the team that helped to make para snowboarding a new Paralympic sport in Sochi 2014.

Besides the different administrative roles I have in the sports realm, I run a small consultancy office on strategic economic and spatial planning.

My name is Thomas Briels, I am 36 years old and living in Antwerp. I have played for 15 years in the Belgium national field hockey team and had the privilege to captain the team for those last five years. I played 359 games for Belgium and participated in 4 Olympic Games. During this time, we have won the European cup (2019), World cup (2018) and in 2021 we became Olympic champions. The Olympic final was also my last game I have played for Belgium. Currently I am still playing at the highest club level in Belgium for HC Braxgata. I have combined my athlete life with a study in Podiatry where I graduated in 2015. 

Besides still playing myself, I organize hockey camps in Belgium and the Netherlands in cooperation with SportWays. I am also working as a consultant for SmartMind where we coach business team in different organizations. Last but not least, I have started my own company called LEAD Field Hockey. This is an online video platform where we share knowledge and experiences of top international players and coaches to educate trainers and coaches at different hockey clubs.  

On a more personal note, I recently became a father for the first time of a beautiful daughter named Louca.