The 3rd Athletes’ Seminar, jointly organized by the European Olympic Committees (EOC) with the support of IOC, was held in Brussels with the participation of European athletes, representatives of IOC, WADA, international federations and national Olympic committees.
The first day was devoted to discussions of practical proposals for improving the organization and coordination of the work of various Athletes’ Commissions. All the participants expressed their interest in holding regular meetings and actively involving functional athletes.
The organizers of the event singled out a separate range of issues such as the European sports model, the competitive activities of the European Union and the opportunities provided to athletes by the Erasmus+ educational program.
The agenda of the second day included issues of protecting the rights of athletes and the fight against doping. Participants emphasized the need to strictly adhere to the 40th clause of the Olympic Charter, which states: ″To participate in the Olympic Games, a competitor, team official or other team personnel must respect and comply with the Olympic Charter and the World Anti-Doping Code.″
During the EOC seminar, the Russian Olympic Committee was represented by the Chair of the ROC Athletes’ Commission, Olympic champion in fencing, Sofya Velikaya:
– Among other things, we discussed the more active participation of athletes in the relevant commissions and the possibility of raising their status. Of course, the fight against doping was also discussed. A lot of attention was paid to the new Declaration of the Rights and Responsibilities of Athletes.
Such seminars are extremely important because they allow to strengthen contacts with representatives of international federations and Olympic organizations.
Conversations were held in a friendly atmosphere and I was able to share with my colleagues the experience of the representatives of the ROC Athletes’ Commission who participated in Winter Sports Day and other mass sports events organized in our country with the support of ROC.
The next EOC meeting is scheduled for April 13-15 at the IOC Athletes’ Forum in Lausanne and for December 6-7 at a similar summit in Dublin.
