2023: End of Year Message from FairSport and Global Athlete
On behalf of our small, dedicated team at FairSport and Global Athlete, we thank you for your continued partnership and support. Through an athletes' first approach, FairSport is committed to the anti-doping movement and to funding Global Athlete to promote fair, safe, and ethical, sport. If you wish to donate to our work, please click the button below.
Athlete Rights Must Guide the Future of Sport
Independent Athlete Representation
In 2023 we continued to assist the establishment of independent athlete organizations. We have worked with athletes from gymnastics, soccer, fencing, boxing, figure skating, and athletics to help and partner as they establish their organizations. Global Athlete will continue to work alongside them on their mission to change sport.
Russia and Belarus
Over the past year, thousands of athletes, in partnership with Global Athlete, have been steadfast in their calls for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to ban both Russia and Belarus from the 2024 Paris Olympic/Paralympic Games. Notably, over three hundred international fencers collectively called for Russia and Belarus to be banned from the 2024 Olympic Games. Over forty Canadian Olympians and Paralympians also called for the suspension and were immediately placed on the banned list for entering Russia by the Kremlin. On the 8th of December 2023, the IOC lent their support to Russia’s war on Ukraine by officially welcoming Russian and Belarusian participation at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games under the guise of neutral athletes. The IOC has once again disregarded the undeniable truth that Putin, as in the past, will use the platform of sport and his athletes to promote his war and advance Russia’s geopolitical agenda. Global Athlete has worked with Ukrainian athletes since the war began in 2021 and we will continue to bolster all their efforts to ensure the Olympic Games do not become a global stage to normalize, legitimize, and distract from the war.
Justice Delay is Justice Denied
For the first time in the history of the modern Olympic Games, the IOC refused to award medals as a result of Russian doping. It has been over 660 days and athletes who competed in the Figure Skating Team Event at the 2022 Winter Olympics are still waiting for their medals due to the doping scandal of Kamila Valieva. This injustice is a result of a collective failure from the IOC, the World Anti-Doping Agency, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Global Athlete was pleased to share and support Vincent Zhou’s, USA Figure Skater, story of his experience in this scandal and the loss of a career-defining moment on the podium due to administrative failures and cover-ups.
Olympic Council Denies Athletes’ Right to Freedom of Expression
Over the past several years there has been notable progress by sports to allow athletes their fundamental right to freedom of expression. This year, however, the Olympic Council of Asia publicly threatened athletes attending the Asian Games in China with the removal of accreditation should they exercise their right to stand for social and racial justice.
Safe Sport – Canada
Over the past year, Global Athlete and our partner Gymnasts for Change Canada worked with thousands of athletes from fifteen sports in Canada calling on the Canadian Government to enact a national inquiry to reform a system that is failing athletes at all levels of sport. Near the end of 2023, Global Athlete and Gymnasts for Change Canada co-hosted the Canadian Safe Sport Think Tank. The Canadian Safe Sport Think Tank report added to the pressure of calls for the government to launch a national inquiry. After two years, on the 11th of December, as a result of pressure from survivors, athletes, scholars and athlete groups, the Government of Canada finally agreed to launch a ‘Future of Sport in Canada Commission’ to review the toxic culture of abuse in Canadian sport.
Anti-Doping
In 2023, investigations and sanctions of the Russian state doping control frauds and schemes, have been gathered and streamlined, with oversight by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). WADA obtained LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) data in October 2017. It took almost one year to realize the breadth and depth of the largest-ever cheating in sports history.
LIMS-based investigations have been duly performed by WADA’s Intelligence and Investigation Department, the World Athletics Integrity Unit, and the International Testing Authority. To date, 222 Russian athletes have been sanctioned, 58 are currently charged and heading to hearings or appeals to CAS, and 145 are still under investigation and processing.
In 2023, FairSport was involved and took part in several hearings and investigations. For more information click here. Remarkably, the remaining cases are tougher than most of the previous before – and that’s the reason why many cases have not been resolved.
Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act
FairSport and Global Athlete advocated for the passage of the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act which ultimately became law in 2021. This law criminalizes doping fraud and is a game-changer in ensuring that those who conspire to dope athletes, like doctors, coaches, trainers, agents, sports officials etc., are held accountable. The Department of Justice brought the first criminal case under the Rodchenkov Act. A doctor who was providing serious potent and dangerous performance-enhancing drugs, like EPO and Human Growth Hormones, was indicted and this year, in 2023, pled guilty and is currently awaiting sentencing which will happen early next year. Additionally, four athletes, including one who was at the 2021 Summer Olympic Games but prevented from competing, have been sanctioned by anti-doping authorities for their intentional doping. This act and its current implementation is truly a breakthrough for the good of clean sport, which is why FairSport and Global Athlete and other partners are thrilled with its enactment.
International Cooperation
Elite athletes have few places to seek assistance when their rights are violated by government officials or sport administrators. Global Athlete seeks to fill this gap by providing athlete-led support to Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Global Athlete has worked directly with athletes and athlete groups from twenty-two countries and over eighteen sports this year.
Your Contribution Matters - Make A Donation
We hope you will join us on this journey with a donation during the holiday giving season. We rely on private contributions to fund our operations. Our independence is critical to our mission, and there is no feasible alternative funding model for our work. We thank you for your support and belief in a sporting future where human rights are reflected in athletes’ rights.
On behalf of the entire team at FairSport and Global Athlete, allow us to also wish you a happy and prosperous New Year.
Sincerely,
Jim Swartz and Johann Koss
Co-Founders, FairSport
Rob Koehler
Director General, Global Athlete
FairSport is an independent foundation dedicated to eradicating cheating in sport. We support confidential sources who speak up to unmask doping, and we educate the global public on the value of honesty and integrity in sport.
Global Athlete is an international athlete-led movement guiding positive change in world sport to collectively address the balance of power between athletes and administrators. We aim to help athletes gain a more representative voice in world sport, recognising that the neglect and suppression of the athlete voice has gone on for too long.