Almost 250 delegates from over 50 nations representing many different interests and stakeholder groups in the sport travelled to Lausanne (SUI) for the seventh edition of the FEI Sports Forum on 26 and 27 March 2018.
FEI President Ingmar De Vos opened the FEI Sports Forum in typically upbeat style: “Every year we use the Sports Forum platform to zoom in on specific topics so that we can make decisions as a community that will help drive our sport to new heights. And we are here once again to do just that…”
Youth was the focal point of the first day, starting with a thought-provoking presentation by IOC Head of Competitions & Operations Antoine Goetschy (FRA) on the Youth Olympic Games and the role of IFs and NFs when it comes to encouraging, attracting and inspiring the next generation of athletes. This transitioned smoothly into the Youth session where a dynamic panel of eight successful young athletes (biographies available here) from around the world representing all the FEI disciplines debated a wide range of topics.
The panel shared their thoughts on “accessibility to high level sport”, “long-term career pathways” and “sport promotion and media”. The athletes asked for greater visibility and a roadmap for young professionals that will help athletes moving from the young rider to senior ranks including youth series and formats, media training opportunities and ideas to better integrate young athletes within the governance process. The female athletes also stressed the importance of demonstrating that it is possible to be both a successful athlete and a mother, asking that ranking points should be frozen across all disciplines during pregnancy.
Led by moderator Catie Staszak (USA), the session also delved into the policies and practices of other sports, such as FIA Secretary General for Motor Sport Peter Bayer presenting some of the innovative initiatives the FIA have rolled out in order to assist career pathways for their young athletes as wells as pertinent case studies on the subject of media promotion and engagement with a presentation by Swedish International Dressage rider and influencer carl Hedin.
This was the first time in the seven-year history of the FEI Sports Forum that the multi-faceted subject of youth had been tackled in such an-in-depth manner. The FEI Bureau will be following up on all of the recommendations and key insights from this session at their next meeting in June 2018.
Athlete welfare was also high on the agenda for the FEI Sports Forum 2018, starting with “Harassment and Abuse” and the recently released IOC toolkit on Monday afternoon. Guest speakers, Kirsty Burrows (GBR), Consultant on Athlete Safeguarding and Susan Greinig, IOC Medical Programmes Manager gave a clear definition of what harassment and abuse is, as well as explaining the toolkit which the IOC has put in place and how everyone in sport can adapt to safeguard and protect, not only the athletes, but all those involved in sport.
The Athlete Welfare session resumed on Tuesday morning starting with “Concussion & Return to Play” policy, where experts reviewed the latest findings on sport-related concussion and looked at new return-to-play policies put in place by some National Federations. The Athlete Welfare session ended with a discussion on the use of “Medication & Recreational Drugs” in equestrian sport, focusing on both safety and anti-doping perspectives.
Risk management in Eventing presented by David O’Connor; optimising performance in a challenging climate, outlining best practice and management of horses and humans in hot weather for athletes, NFs and Organising Committees; an update from the Working Group on FEI Officials with the presentation of 13 recommendations for improvements to the appointment, education, and evaluation of FEI Officials; and the findings of the Dressage Judging Working Group and the proposed Code of Points judging system concluded the seventh edition of the FEI Sports Forum, with education, research and the integrity of competition at the very heart of each of these topics.
Watch on Replay, executive summaries, supporting documents and photos.
Each session (see breakdown below) has a dedicated page on Inside FEI with a player so that you can watch on replay alongside extensive supporting documentation such as key quotes and takeaways from the session, biographies of the speakers, reference documents, photos and background information as well as the executive summaries.
• FEI Sports Forum Hub
• Opening Remarks: FEI President Ingmar De Vos and IMD Professor Ina Toegel
• Session 1: Youth Olympic Games 2018 and future
• Session 2: Youth
• Session 3: Athlete Welfare
• Session 4: Eventing Risk Management
• Session 5: FEI Officials
• Session 6: Optimising performance in a challenging climate
• Session 7: FEI Dressage Judging Working Group Findings
Note that the executive summaries for each session and the images “available for download” will be published on Inside FEI on 10 April. A link will also be sent directly to all participants.
The FEI would like to thank all the delegates, participants, guest speakers and panellists for contributing wholeheartedly to the success of the FEI Sports Forum 2018!
Source: Press release
READ THE LATEST NEWS ARTICLES HERE
