IFs and NOCs strongly support fight against competition manipulation at Tokyo 2020
Over the past few months, International Federations (IFs) and National Olympic Committees (NOCs) across the globe have worked closely with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to help ensure fair competitions during the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
In particular, they have undertaken various activities to raise awareness of the risk of competition manipulation among their athletes and entourage members, from the organisation of webinars and personal briefings, the promotion of the IOC’s e-learning programme and dedicated campaign “MAKE THE RIGHT DECISION”, to using athlete ambassadors and distributing educational material, such as the Code of Conduct.
Snapshot of NOC activities
Supported by the Olympic Movement Unit on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions (OM Unit PMC), a large number of NOCs have organised dedicated sessions for their Olympic delegations to brief them about the rules and urge them to be careful in certain situations.
In many cases, athlete ambassadors have been involved in these activities, with peer-to-peer communication proving highly successful. For instance, the NOC of Botswana worked with athlete ambassador Moses Jones (karate) to brief its Olympic delegation during an online training session on how to prevent competition manipulation. On other occasions, the sessions were delivered by the NOC integrity experts or the Chefs de Mission.
NOCs have also explored other means to reach out to their Olympic delegations. For instance, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee developed a “delegation app” for Tokyo 2020, which includes the e-learning programme and educational clips on the topic. Meanwhile, the Chef de Mission of the Mexican NOC delivered one-to-one training with every member of the Mexican delegation, who will also receive a bracelet for Games time promoting the Olympic values and the fight against competition manipulation. The Austrian NOC included awareness-raising training on the prevention of competition manipulation as part of the uniform distribution days in early July and thereby covered all of its Olympic team members.
IFs in action
At the same time, the OM Unit PMC worked closely with the IFs and their athlete ambassadors to prevent competition manipulation at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. For instance, ambassador Telma Monteiro from Portugal briefed athletes and their entourage members during the judo Grand Slam event in Kazan, Russia, in May and said: “I think the biggest problem is the lack of information. Educating athletes can greatly contribute to preventing them from being involved in harmful situations in the future.”
Also in May, the International Swimming Federation (FINA) organised a webinar for athletes and their entourages, featuring athlete ambassadors Diego Castillo from Panama and Jian Ying Koh from Singapore. The session was open to anyone, and was followed live by 760 people on the FINA learning platform.
In June, similar sessions were organised for coaches and referees from World Taekwondo and Technical Officials from the International Cycling Union (UCI), World Rugby and World Skate.
During the Games, the OM Unit PMC will retain a direct link with all IFs while monitoring sports betting on all Olympic events.