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ATHLETES' HEALTH & safeguarding
EDITORIAL
Elite athletes devote thousands of hours to the quest for excellence in their sport – the goal being to perform and compete at the highest level possible. All aspects of health and safety are of the highest importance and need to be considered. For its part, the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s mission includes placing athletes at the heart of the Olympic Movement, in line with the roadmap established by Olympic Agenda 2020. Recommendation 18 of this is: “Strengthen support to athletes.” All athletes must be able to practise safe sport, in an environment that is respectful, fair and free from any form of non-accidental violence.
The IOC has therefore taken important measures to protect athletes against harassment and abuse in sport by means of projects put in place by its Athletes’, Athletes’ Entourage, Medical and Scientific, and Women in Sport commissions, in collaboration with the NOCs, IFs and experts.
The IOC toolkit for IFs and NOCs has been developed to help IFs and NOCs design their own policies and procedures aimed at safeguarding athletes from harassment and abuse in sport.
In order to facilitate research on this important topic, we propose to you here a selection of official resources including those produced by the International Olympic Committee through its Medical and Scientific Commission. It includes the Olympic Movement Medical Code and the IOC collection of sports medicine publications, as well as the World Anti-Doping Code.
Don’t miss the International Olympic Committee consensus statements, which can all be found here. We highlight in particular the ones on mental health of elite athletes (2019) and on interpersonal violence and safeguarding in sport (2024), published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. This latest consensus follows two others on this theme, "Harassment and abuse (non-accidental violence) in sport" (2016) and "Sexual harassment and abuse in sport" (2007).
Of course, the selection on this page is limited. Use the search bar to access the full catalogue and the useful links section to find more resources on athletes’ health available to you.
USEFUL LINKS
Pages and documents on Olympics.com
Harassment and abuse in sport
Fight against doping
Safe sport
Athlete 365 - Safe sport infomation for athletes and MentallyFit
Athletes' Declaration
Find all consensus statements by the IOC Medical and Scientific Commission
Factsheet - The fight against doping and promotion of athletes' health - 20 June 2024
IOC News on Olympics.com
IOC publishes new consensus statement on safeguarding and interpersonal violence in sport - 25 Nov. 2024
World Mental Health Day : how the IOC ran the largest online abuse prevention prgoramme ever conducted in sport at Paris 2024 - 10 Oct. 2024
IOC mental health ambassador Abhinav Bindra : putting the human being ahead of the athlete - 9 Oct. 2024
Establishment of regional safeguarding hubs approved by IOC EB - 13 Oct. 2023
New IOC mental health action plan to further focus on well-being af athletes and promoting psychologically safe environments - 3 July 2023
Supporting athletes' mental health on and off the field of play - 10 Oct. 2021
IOC launches the International Safeguarding Officer in Sport Certificate - 31 May 2021
International Athletes' Forum ends with concrete proposals to further increase the support to athletes at all levels - 14 April 2019
IOC recognises 11 research centres worldwide for prevention of injury and protection of athlete health - 7 Jan. 2019
IOC Webinars
IOC safe sport webinar series for NOCs
IOC athletes safeguarding webinar series for International Federations
Safeguarding athletes in the Olympic Movement - On the Line with an expert, 17 & 18 June 2024
Videos
Healthy Body Image, 4 educational videos produced by the IOC
The uniqueness of youth elite athletes, and the support they need - Round Table Olympic Studies Centre & University of Lausanne, 8 January 2020
Conferences and educational toolkit
IOC medical and scientific educational events
WADA - Anti-Doping eLearing (ADeL) Platform - access to all topics related to clean sport and anti-doping for athletes, coaches, doctors and administrators (free access to the content by registration only)