Awareness-raising at multi-sport events

Over the last few months, the Olympic Movement Unit on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions (OM Unit PMC), together with several Believe in Sport ambassadors, continued to support organisers of several multi-sport events in conducting awareness-raising measures on the prevention of competition manipulation.

The latest examples include the Southern African Games held in December in Malawi (see interview with Mweetwa Nchimunya Abishai) and the Winter European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) in January in Italy. The Unit’s activation process usually kicks off with an information session for the Chefs de Mission of the participating NOCs pre-Games and continues with an on-site activation via an educational booth during games time. At the same time, the NOCs are encouraged to run awareness-raising activities for their delegations prior to the Games.

Winter European Youth Olympic Festival

During the Winter EYOF, the Unit worked closely with the Education and Culture Commission of the European Olympic Committees (EOC). Prior to the event, the Unit educated the EYOF ambassadors and alumni on the topic, making sure they can pass on the right messages to participating athletes.

Clea Papaellina, Vice Chair of the EOC Culture and Education Commission, said about the cooperation: “We were really glad to join forces with the OM Unit PMC on the occasion of the Winter EYOF. Our 26 ambassadors and 6 alumni of the European Young Olympic Ambassadors (EYOA) Programme learnt a lot thanks to the webinars held in advance of the Games and the physical presence of the OM Unit PMC during the Games, which was highly beneficial for all the young competitors. We are very much looking forward to continuing our cooperation in Maribor for the Summer EYOF. This values-based programme is under the auspices of the EOC Culture and Education Commission”.

Olympic qualifiers coming up

Heading towards a long multi-sport event season, which will feature several Olympic qualifiers, the OM Unit PMC has already started to work closely with the respective organisers, including those of the European Games in June, the Asian Games in September and October and the Pan American Games in October and November.

Multi-sport events of that scale usually attract a significant number of high-level athletes and involve many NOCs. Preventive measures can therefore have significant reach and also trigger long-lasting impact at organisational level.