Preventing competition manipulation at multi-sport events
In the past few months, organisers of several multi-sport events have welcomed the OM Unit PMC’s support in conducting awareness-raising measures on the prevention of competition manipulation. The latest examples have been the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham (Great Britain), the European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) in Banská Bystrica (Slovakia), and the South American Games in Asunción (Paraguay), all held between July and October.
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. For instance, prior to the EYOF, the Lithuanian NOC collaborated with its Believe in Sport ambassador – former professional rower Saulius Ritter – to organise a briefing for its athletes and officials.
Similar activities have been planned for the upcoming Southern African Games, the Winter EYOF and the Games of the Small States of Europe, as well as a number of continental games which will serve as qualifiers for the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
Multi-sport events of that scale usually attract a significant number of high-level athletes and involve many NOCs. These preventive measures can therefore have significant reach and also trigger long-lasting impacts at organisational level. For instance, most recently, the Pacific Games Council adopted organisational rules which are in line with the OM Code PMC and will be applied to these organisations and all their events in the future.