Biggest Ever International Athletes’ Forum staged
Some 350 athlete representatives from 185 National Olympic Committees (NOCs), 50 International Federations (IFs), five continental Athletes Commissions (ACs), the ACs of all the Organising Committees of the upcoming Olympic Games, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the World Olympians Association (WOA) met in Lausanne for the 9th edition of the International Athletes’ Forum (IAF) last week. It was the biggest ever gathering of official athlete representatives, to which athletes from all 206 NOCs were invited. Also attending was IOC President Thomas Bach, Olympic Champion in fencing in Montreal 1976 and member of the first IOC Athletes’ Commission in 1981.
“This IAF was empowering, exciting and unifying,” highlighted Kirsty Coventry, IOC AC Chair, who is about to give birth to her first child but joined the Forum online.
“We had a very fruitful meeting,” said IOC AC Vice Chair Danka Bartekova, who led the discussions in the absence of Kirsty Coventry. “The IOC Athletes’ Commission will take the proposals to the IOC Executive Board, where we are directly represented. The IOC President has told me in our discussions during the Forum that he will fully support our recommendations. We look forward to their implementation, which will ensure that the support for athletes at all levels is improved even further and the solidarity model of the Olympic Games is reinforced for the benefit of all athletes.”
Driven by the International Olympic Committee’s Athletes’ Commission, the carefully crafted programme blended inspirational sessions and focused workshops aim to equip athletes with relevant advice, tools and services that empower, excite and unite the world’s largest global athletes’ community of Athlete365.
FIS was represented during the three-day programme by current FIS Athlete’s Commission Vice Chair Hannah Kearney (USA), who was on the Steering Committee of the Athlete’s Rights and Declarations project, which was presented to the athletes on Sunday.
