NOCs in action
In close coordination with the OM Unit PMC, National Olympic Committees (NOCs) continue to play an important role in preventing competition manipulation in their respective countries. Here is a round-up of recent activities:
South East Asia Regional Seminar
A regional webinar for South East Asia was organised in mid-April and attracted 50 NOC integrity experts and representatives from NFs. Strategically held ahead of the 2023 Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia (5-17 May 2023), the meeting offered an opportunity to remind participants of NOCs’ basic responsibilities in preventing competition manipulation and their important role in educating their delegations.
Fong Wan Hor, General Manager of the Olympic Council of Malaysia, stated: “The webinar helped us to further understand the topic for the preparation of the Malaysian delegation ahead of the 32nd SEA Games, Cambodia 2023, and the 19th Asian Games, Hangzhou 2023. We will be working further with the OM Unit PMC towards implementing everything necessary to protect us from the risk of competition manipulation.”
Webinar for all NOCs
At the end of April, the OM Unit PMC then organised a webinar for NOCs from all continents, aimed at further alerting them to the threat of competition manipulation and training them on how to best educate their athletes and officials on this important topic. With several major multi-sport events, the Olympic qualifiers, the Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024 and the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on the horizon, the meeting provided a timely opportunity to share smart tools and informative material, and allow some 70 NOCs to exchange best practices and learn from each other.
Joana Goncalves, integrity expert at the NOC of Portugal, said after the session: "Thanks to this webinar, we had the chance to hear best practices from a big range of NOCs on how to best educate their delegates ahead of major events, how NOCs could work with national stakeholders in this regard, and how to best use athlete ambassadors. With many multi-sport events and the Olympics coming up, we are now better aware and equipped to ensure that our athletes and delegates are well familiarised with, and protected in relation to, the threat of competition manipulation, and we look forward to applying what we learnt."
IOC-INTERPOL webinar on intelligence and investigations
In addition, the OM Unit PMC continues to collaborate closely with INTERPOL to drive capacity-building and provide training opportunities in the field of competition manipulation prevention. A good example is the recent IOC-INTERPOL webinar on intelligence and investigations, which was organised for 60 representatives from eight NOCs in the Southern African region (ANOCA Zone 6) in early June.
The participants learnt how an investigation should be conducted, from both the sports disciplinary and the law enforcement perspective, and how these two types of investigations should be coordinated. In addition, they were presented with specific case studies which got everyone involved and triggered interactive discussions.
Obakeng Ngwigwa, who takes care of integrity matters for the NOC of Botswana, said of the session: “The IOC-INTERPOL webinar on intelligence and investigations was enlightening in terms of how NOCs and sports organisations should react if ever a case comes up. The information on how to handle such matters was clear and straightforward. We now look forward to working further with our NFs in this regard and being ready to react to any potential cases in the future, in order to protect the integrity of our sport and competitions."
If you are an NOC or IF and are keen to learn more about how to protect sports integrity in your country or sport, contact omunitpmc@olympic.org.