Governance Concerns for Winter Olympic Sports

(ATR) A review of the seven winter federations finds "some noticeable gaps" in governance, with only one IF comparable to the best of the summer sports.

Governance of the seven members of the Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations (AIOWF) was evaluated using a tweaked version of the self-assessment questionnaire developed by summer sports umbrella body ASOIF.

"Significant variation in governance practices among the AIOWF members was apparent in the study," said the report following the second AIOWF-commissioned review.

"There were some good examples of high standards, including important improvements from 2017, but there were also some noticeable gaps which give cause for concern and need to be addressed."

"With a small sample size of seven, averages should be treated with caution. However, only one of the winter IFs was comparable to the best of the summer sports," the report added.

The survey comprised 50 questions related to transparency, integrity, democracy, development and control mechanisms. The winter sports, none of which are named in the report, were divided between three which earned less than $8.2 million per year on average from 2012-2015 and four others with revenue of $20 million to $51 million. None of the winter sports generated as much as the top six summer sports, each of which had income of over $51 million per year.

Astonishingly, only three winter sports published full, audited accounts, with one other publishing some financial information, falling short of full accounts. The remaining three IFs provided "virtually no financial details". In this year’s review of summer sports’ governance, 21 out of its 28 full members had published audited accounts.

Gender balance was identified as a major area of weakness among the winter IFs, with only one including more than 25 percent female representation on their executive board.

While all seven IFs have rules in place for electoral processes, only two have some type of term limit.

The governance report noted that extensive work was ongoing to improve different aspects of governance. Reforms introduced at some IF congresses in 2018 were contributing to improvements.

"Governance is an ongoing process and IFs are under more scrutiny than ever. It will require strong commitment from leaders and their teams for IFs to aim for and reach the high standards of governance which the public and the sports community have a right to expect," the study said in its conclusions.

"Policies and processes are an important component but other factors play a huge role, including the culture and behavior within an organization and among its stakeholders."

Gian Franco Kasper, AIOWF president and head of the international skiing federation, said the seven sports "have embraced the governance review process and appreciate the valuable exchange of good practices".

"Even though we are seven autonomous organizations, the sharing of governance practices benefits the sports movement as a whole. The governance work is a key element of our role as international federations that we will continue to evolve on an ongoing basis."

Next steps to improve winter sports federations’ governance include meetings with individual IFs to review their assessments and tracking of their operations through a dedicated governance monitoring unit established by ASOIF.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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