Democratization and governance in international sport: addressing issues with athlete involvement in organizational policy

Abstract

Leaders of national and international sport organizations are increasingly recognising the importance of involving stakeholders in the development of policies. In the governance of international high performance sport, an important group of stakeholders includes athletes. The purpose of this paper is to highlight and discuss the increasing role high performance athletes are playing in the development of policies in international sport organizations. 1 We examine how representation and deliberative participation in policymaking allow high performance athletes to not only be represented at policy meetings, but also be involved in the formation of policies that affect them. To showcase athletes' representation and participation in sport policy, a number of international sport examples are presented (i.e. winter and summer Olympic international sport federations as well as the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee, and the World Anti-Doping Agency). Several organizations have incorporated more athletecentred practices that have allowed for greater involvement from athletes. In investigating these cases, we discuss and critique issues, and provide practical recommendations surrounding athlete representation and participation in deliberations and their impact on the policy and decision-making processes of their international sport federation. Un creciente número de organizaciones deportivas nacionales e internacionales está aceptando la importancia de dar voz a todos los estamentos del deporte en los procesos internos de toma de decisiones. En las estructuras de gobierno del deporte de élite uno de los estamentos más importantes deberían ser los deportistas. El objetivo de este artículo es analizar y valorar el papel, cada vez más importante, que los deportistas de élite juegan en la toma de decisiones de las organizaciones deportivas internacionales. El artículo analiza la manera en que diversas estructuras de representación y participación en los debates y la toma de decisiones permite a los deportistas no sólo sentirse representados, sino también ser partícipes de las políticas de la organización. El estudio presenta ejemplos de varias organizaciones deportivas (p. ej. Federaciones olímpicas de invierno y verano, el Comité Olímpico Internacional, el Comité Paralímpico Internacional y la Agencia Mundial Anti Dopaje). Varias organizaciones deportivas han conseguido una mayor participación de los deportistas mediante la puesta en marcha de políticas y estructuras que tienen en cuenta sus necesidades y su realidad. Mediante nuestro análisis crítico de estas estructuras el artículo ofrece recomendaciones para mejorar la representación y la participación de los deportistas en la toma de decisiones de las federaciones deportivas internacionales.

Good governance in international sport organizations: an analysis of the 35 Olympic sport governing bodies

“…However, in recent years, we witness an increasing influence of athletes in the development of policies in SGBs (Thibault, Kihl, and Babiak 2010). Nevertheless, as…”

“…These are accountability and participation issues (e.g. Forster and Pope 2004, Houlihan 2004, Thibault, Kihl and Babiak 2010, Pieth 2011, Pielke 2013, and the (perceived) conservatism and inertia in the people that govern INGSOs (Tomlinson 2000, Henry andLee 2004 Firstly, an exploratory set of parameters was composed based on a review of the available literature on good governance, corporate governance, democratic governance and good governance in sports organisations. Since information on the internal functioning of SGBs is scarce, the focus was inevitably on parameters for which the data was actually publicly available.…”

The Lack of Age Representation in the Governance of Rugby Union in England

“…Because the organization of analysis here is sport, the lack of youth represented in the sport's governing body means elite players themselves (Thibault, Kihl and Babiak 2010); although not children, they tend to be young people. Thus, similar to that of gender representation, young athletes often lack influence and organizations deploy tokenistic structures for athlete participation in decision-making (Thibault, Kihl and Babiak 2010).…”

“…Young athletes are usually at the frontline of change, and therefore should be central to policy decisions that affect them. Accordingly, there is increasing pressure to involve athletes in the decisions that affect them, and pressure is especially being levied against international sporting bodies to listen to the elite performerswho are generally also young (Thibault, Kihl and Babiak 2010). Despite this, there is little or no recognition of other stakeholders, such as youth participants, their parents, or young adult players in many sports.…”

Analytical attractions and the techno-continuum: Conceptualising data obsessions and consequences in elite sport

“…interests (Donnelly, 2015, Ferkins & Shilbury, 2015Geeraert, Alm, & Groll, 2014;Hassan & O'Boyle, 2017); however, this is not always the case. Some organisations may acquiesce and prioritise athletes' demands first and foremost and effectively 'buy into' the idea that athletes believe that they have the sense, ability and knowledge to know what they need, when they need, and why they need it (such a point speaks to prevailing discourse within academic and areas of the sport industry that argue athlete empowerment is a desirable aspect of good governance) (Ferkins & Shilbury, 2015;Geeraert et al, 2014;Thibault, Kihl & Babiak, 2010). Whether this represents a cultural shift in performance sport (underpinned by athlete-driven consumerism and drive toward greater advocacy and representation) may be debatable, yet there are advantages to sport organisations interjecting into coach-athlete relations and destabilising coaches' 'expertise' as part of the normative practices of sustaining the effectiveness and outcomes of their performance programmes (Purdy et al, 2017).…”