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President Hansen delivers keynote speech at SIGA Sport Integrity Forum

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Distinguished guests, Sport Integrity Global Alliance partners, members of the media, dear friends who share the values integrity and good governance in sport . . .

I want to give my congratulations to SIGA, for coming together in a time of need for all sport and for its good work in this fundamentally important field.

It says a lot about the role of sport in the modern world and the challenges we face that top people like your ad interim Council and supporters from so many sectors have put in the time and effort you have so far and, starting with your General Assembly tomorrow, will continue to do in the future.

I very much appreciate the work you are doing.

I also appreciate the chance to contribute to the process by saying a few words on behalf of athletics and my organisation European Athletics, particularly because we ourselves have been working very hard in this area trying to rebuild credibility in our sport, and we hope our results so far are an example worth sharing.

Allow me to start by preaching to the choir a little about the importance of integrity and good governance.

Integrity on the field of play and in how a sport organisation operates is absolutely essential for maintaining the interest of participants, the public and the supporters we need in government and the commercial sector. A sport lacking credibility and the confidence it provides is at risk of abrupt failure or simply fading away.

On top of basic integrity, we in athletics, like every sport, have a set of key values, which in our case includes health & fitness, fair play, personal development, universal access, gender equity, social & environmental responsibility. These are a part of the attraction a sport needs to grow and develop.

Finally, there are the basic principles of governance such as democracy, transparency and accountability that are the basis for managing an organisation successfully and sustainably.

Importantly, governance is more than rules and enforcement. It is more than a task that you can tick off and say “I’m done”. Rather it is an endless journey of managing an organisation to be as good as possible and prepared to do the right thing. I strongly believe in doing the right thing.

The corruption and doping scandals we have seen across a number sports in recent years represent betrayals of sport’s values and of the trust of millions of people, young and old. They are examples of what happens when governance is inadequate or simply fails.

The cases that have wracked athletics on the global level have, I must say, wounded me personally. I sometimes find it difficult to contain my disappointment, my frustration and my anger. The situation is discouraging and as more accusations surface and are confirmed it hurts, every time.

Beyond the personal level, our organisations – the IAAF, European Athletics and the other Area associations, and the national federations - are all threatened by the reluctance of various levels of government to invest or commercial partners to work with us because of our tarnished reputation.

But I am nothing if not an optimist. I believe in the essential goodness of the overwhelming majority of the athletes and others involved in athletics. Together, we are the custodians of a great sport that brings wonderful value to the lives of individuals and makes a real difference to society.

For me, European Athletics’ “Your Sport for Life” slogan has never been more relevant as a summary of what we can do, what we believe and what we must fight for.

Every one of you involved in SIGA will understand that our current priorities include cleaning up the mess we find ourselves in and making sure that everything that can be done to prevent these types of problems in the future is done. I am happy to say that we have the appetite for it.

In fact, the real pain that I and my colleagues feel has been balanced by a certain pride in the response of our sport. I will talk about what we in European Athletics are doing in a moment, but first I want to talk about the response of the IAAF, where I am a Council member.

The evidence-backed accusations in the media of systematic, state-sponsored doping in Russia demanded action, not just from the world governing body of athletics but from the whole sporting movement.

The IAAF Council rose to the challenge and its unanimous decisions to suspend the national federation so that an investigation could take place and then to uphold the suspension through the Olympic Games were both correct and brave.

I am well aware of the complaints and controversy about Russian athletes who had never failed a doping control test missing out on the opportunities to be at our European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam and at the Games in Rio. But it was the system in Russia that let them down and we had to meet our responsibility to ensure that all the participants from more than 200 countries were competing on a level playing field.

The IAAF did the right thing. We did the only thing we could do and still remain true to our sport, to its values and to the athletes.

If similar situations arise in other countries, and they may well do, I hope that President Coe and my IAAF Council colleagues will continue to hold up their heads and be just as resolute.

And it is extremely important that other sports and other sport organisations follow our lead, learn from what we have done and act – not just talk – but act accordingly.

It is also my sincere hope, and I am sure the hope of all my colleagues, that the authorities in Russia can now do the right thing by quickly acknowledging the full extent of their problem and then follow the advice of the IAAF and WADA to fix it. We want to see the Russian athletes back, but only if we can be fully confident that they are playing by the same rules as everyone else.

As you know, the case in Russia also revealed evidence of extensive corruption on the part of certain former leaders and significant organisational weaknesses in the IAAF itself.

It is unfortunate that we have become somewhat used to and are able to mentally digest doping cases, but this scandal and the cynical nature of what has been alleged has been really difficult to swallow.

I travel a lot around Europe on behalf of our sport, and while the people I meet are normally optimists like me, I have seen a lot of pained looks and heads shaking when this topic comes up.

This pain is perhaps part of the reason why, when given the chance to vote on a package of constitutional changes designed to prevent such abuse in the future, Europe’s federations, almost unanimously, supported the proposal and led the Congress to its overwhelming passage of the proposal.

The changes we made will permanently alter the nature of the IAAF. There will be greater separation of roles and power, checks and balances, transparency, gender equity, a code of conduct and independent enforcement – in short, all the necessary characteristics of a well-governed organisation.

Here I have to congratulate President Coe and all those involved in the project for their work. They were deliberate, they were creative, they communicated a very complex message effectively and they were brave in tackling such a tough and contentious task.

What is most important is that, in the end, the IAAF again did the right thing.

Here in Europe, where the sport originated, we have been leading the way in the quest for improved governance in athletics. This has been driven partly by interest at the European Union level and partly by demands from within our own organisation and our 51 Member Federations.

For example, for some years now we at European Athletics have voluntarily subjected ourselves to the highest level of audit under the Swiss system, which is usually demanded for only the biggest companies and is both labour-intensive and expensive. But we feel the confidence it generates is worth the effort and cost involved.

We commissioned an independent governance compliance audit as well as an independent risk assessment and management project. Again, we feel these are worth the effort and expense.

We have also created a declaration of integrity signed by all our elected officials and our staff, an independently managed whistle-blower platform - not just for doping but for issues in all areas of what we do - and a European Athletics Court for dealing with any violations or disputes that may arise in the future.

Following the constitutional changes at the IAAF level we have asked a project team to review our Constitution and propose changes to bring the two fully in line so that our Congress this autumn in Vilnius can approve them.

But there are three recent developments on which I would like to focus for a moment. The first is an effort to help our Member Federations enhance their own governance.

We have been working with a European Commission-funded project called “Support the Implementation of Good Governance in Sport” – SIGGS – which has developed a self-assessment and action planning tool for national governing bodies.

We introduced the tool to our federations last October at a special workshop during our annual Convention and we are planning to continue the workshop on a regular basis in the future. The idea is that the discussion of better governance becomes a constant feature for our federations and other stakeholders in the sport.

I am hoping that maybe it will be possible to cooperate with SIGA on the delivery of a future workshop.

The second development is our “I Run Clean” initiative and its central feature: a mandatory anti-doping education system for athletes and coaches.

This online and interactive system will go beyond the typical quiz of what substances an athlete can and cannot take to address values and good decision making, not just to participate fairly in sport but in the rest of their lives.

Over the next couple of years we will roll this out and make completing it a condition for participation in any European Athletics championship at any age level.

We also want to make it available in multiple languages and help interested Member Federations to adapt it for use in clubs and schools. The aim is to open discussion on our sport’s values and impact the culture of the sport, again from the bottom up.

The third point is a project, launched last week, to restore credibility to European Athletics’ records.

We know that there are some records that were set in times when doping control standards were not what they are now and are unlikely to be broken for many years, if ever. This is both an image problem for the sport and a disincentive for clean athletes.

We have asked a team of experts to review all records and make recommendations that we can then discuss with the IAAF and agree a way forward. I don’t want to pre-judge the results, but I can tell you the reaction from the public through social media has been very strong and in favour of the effort we are making.

Linked to this, I am asking that in future, we will store the doping control sample for any European record for a minimum of 10 years to allow for retesting when technology improves. We don’t want cheats to ever feel that they a got away with something and that a record is safe just because they were not caught immediately.

You can tell from the sheer number of initiatives mentioned here, not one of which was mandated by anyone outside of our organisation, that we are serious about the integrity of our sport and that we are constantly looking at how we can do the right thing.

It is my hope that some of the practical measures we are taking can be models for other organisations working within the framework of standards established by SIGA.

I mentioned already the possibility of collaborating with SIGA on a workshop for our Member Federations but I want to add here that are other possibilities to work together and our door will be open to any requests.

I want to close by saying again on behalf of European Athletics thank you for the invitation to speak and to share some of our experience with you today.

Thinking about the focus of your work, I believe it is essential that the drive to ensure integrity and better governance come from inside the sport movement. When he spoke to the European Athletics Convention a little more than a year ago, Thomas Bach said something that is still ringing in my ear: “Change or be changed”.

I love my sport, its history, its values and what it delivers to individuals and society. I know we can improve in a lot of areas, but it is always better if changes must come from within. Bach’s words are a strong motivation for me and European Athletics.

Of course sport organisations can and should take ideas from outside, but if changes are imposed I fear the something essential will be lost and, our case, the attraction of athletics to new generations could be diminished.

I see SIGA as being from the sport movement and that it and European Athletics have common interests. Therefore I want to wish you all the best with your project and I hope to work with you in the future.

Thank you for your attention.




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