Carole Gomez
PhD candidate in sociology of sport, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. She has 15 years of professional experience in the sporting environment as a researcher. After working for two years as a lawyer at the French Ministry of Sport, in charge of political and parliamentary issues relating to the department of Sport, she was a research fellow at the French Institute of Strategic and Foreign affairs (IRIS), working on sport, geopolitics and integrity issues.
Email: carole.gomez.1@unil.ch
Twitter: @carole_gomez
Since 2007, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been formally committed to combating various forms of violence in sports. Its efforts have increasingly focused on the concepts of ‘Safe Sport’ and ‘Safeguarding’ since 2016, with the publication of a Consensus Statement on Harassment and Abuse (Non-Accidental Violence). The IOC has also implemented a framework for protecting athletes and other participants from harassment and abuse in sports since the Rio 2016 Games, providing a practical tool for international federations and national committees in 2017. In 2021, an action plan was launched, followed in 2022 by the creation of a ‘Safe Sport Unit’ within the organization. This issue of ‘Safe Sport’ was further enshrined in the Agenda 2020+5 with Recommendation No. 5 aimed at ‘Strengthening Safe Sport,’ linking ‘Safe Sport’ to the broader issue of human rights. The Paris 2024 Games seemed to mark a new milestone in this direction, both by strengthening the measures implemented by the IOC and by its active positioning to be seen as a leader in this field.
Associated primarily with children and mainly with cases of harassment and sexual abuse, the concept of safeguarding has undergone an interesting evolution. Now, this term, as used by the Olympic institution in 2024, encompasses the notion of a safe sport environment, with an emphasis on mental health, guided by a holistic approach. For example, one of the measures put in place for the Paris 2024 Games is the creation of the Athlete 365 Mind Zone within the Olympic Village fitness center. This space, designed as a place for confidential consultations and discussions with an IOC staff member trained in mental health first aid, responds to a growing demand for dedicated areas. It is also interesting to see the IOC’s effort to invest in the field of mental health, a topic that has become pivotal in recent years, particularly following various testimonies from athletes like Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles, or Michael Phelps.
Crucial actors in the safeguarding plan, the safeguarding officers were present in Paris to hear from athletes if needed. As in Beijing 2022, in addition to the IOC Safeguarding officers, each national delegation has been allocated a quota of Welfare Officers, specially trained to detect and manage situations of harassment or abuse. The idea was to enable these national officers not only to ensure a continuous presence but also to be tailored to the specific realities of each delegation.
Following the launch of the Agenda 2020 in 2014 and the Olympic Agenda 2020+5 (2021), the IOC published the Olympic Agenda for AI in May 2024, seeking to address the challenges posed by the exponential development of digital technologies. Among the five areas of intervention envisioned to “transform sport and the Olympic Games with AI,” the first was entirely dedicated to “supporting athletes, clean competition, and safety in sport”. More specifically, promoting a safe sports environment is a clearly identified objective, particularly through strengthening prevention initiatives and responding to situations of harassment and abuse in sports. The challenge is significant, with estimates predicting nearly 500 million social media posts during these Games. This technology is supposed to enable rapid and effective responses, identifying harassers and removing inappropriate content before it has a harmful impact on athletes.
Nevertheless, the resounding scandal surrounding the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, an Olympic champion who became the target of a campaign of discrimination and hate, illustrates the crucial role of this unit in trying to limit hateful comments against athletes and those who defend them. This scandal has also severely tested this new system, both in terms of the scale of the cyber-harassment and its intensity. It should be noted that the boxer announced that she had filed a complaint for aggravated cyberbullying as soon as the Games were over, as did Kirsty Burrows, head of the Safe Sport Unit, who spoke at an IOC briefing to explain the IOC’s position on the matter.
By broadening the concept of safeguarding to include mental health, creating dedicated spaces, reinforcing the presence of safeguarding officers, and using artificial intelligence to combat cyberbullying, the IOC seeks to expand and entrench its commitment to creating ‘Safe Sport.’ While it is too early to draw definitive conclusions regarding the effectiveness of these measures, especially in light of the various cyberharassment campaigns against athletes during the Olympic fortnight, the outcome warrants close attention to determine whether these initiatives have genuinely contributed to a safer environment for athletes and if they can represent a significant new step in this area.
