22 Feb 2019

Located on the shores of Lake Geneva, Lausanne was the recent destination for Ramon Ortega Montes, the ITTF Head of Education; commencing on Friday 25th January and then reconvening for a further two days on Monday 28th January, the item on the agenda was integrity and anti-doping measures in sport.

Sport has become big business, large sums of money change hands; fair play and clean sport, it is the policy of the International Table Tennis Federation.

by Ian Marshall, Editor

The meeting addressed a series of topic on wide range of topics.

First on the agenda was a “be true, be you, believe in sport” workshop promoted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) who provide approaching 20 educational tools which International Federations may use to uphold fair play.

“Being at these workshops I realized what a serious issue competition manipulation could become. I am convinced that the key is promoting education in integrity. We will prioritize the subject this year and will work together with other stakeholders in the same direction”. Ramon Ortega Montes

A thoughtful Ramon Ortega Montes (Photo: courtesy of Ramon Ortega Montes)

 

Next on the agenda was a Global Lottery Monitoring System Workshop, good practices being studied; case studies, of lotteries from France, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Portugal were scrutinized.

Discussions centred on how lotteries, the Olympic movement and international federations can further collaborate at a national level in order to disseminate a culture of integrity and raise awareness about relevant integrity risks.

The lottery workshop in Lausanne (Photo: Ramon Ortega Montes)

 

Intense discussion and an exchange of ideas, it was the same on the subject of education as it was with regards to the topics covered by the World Antidoping Agency and the International Testing Agency.

Courses were explained which athletes, coaches, doctors, administrators could attend. Notably in the future the International Testing Agency will employ an Educational Manager whose responsibilities will include organizing seminars at designated events.

The integrity workshop, ready to exchange thoughts (Photo: courtesy of Ramon Ortega Montes)

 

A successful venture, one valued Raul Calin, ITTF Secretary-General.

“In the last few years, under the leadership of Pâquerette Girard-Zappelli, the IOC Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, International Olympic Committee; the IOC has established a team of staff that is helping international federations to fight corruption. I’m very pleased with the last four year interaction with Mrs Girard-Zappelli and Mr Friedrich Martens, as they have helped and guided the ITTF when we had to face doubtful situations in our sport. Now, the ITTF goes one step further with Ramon Ortega Montes attending these seminars and starting to outline what will be our future educational plans of our Federation to fight corruption.” Raul Calin

A positive initiative, now the task is to evaluate and then put into practice the finding of the workshops.

Ramon Ortega (right) in discussion with (left) Vincent Ven and Claudio Marinell (Photo: courtesy of Ramon Ortega Montes)

 

International Olympic Committee: Prevention on the Manipulation of Competitions Toolbox

World Anti-Doping Agency: Anti-Doping Learning Platform

High Performance and Development Athletes Anti Doping Administration Ramon Ortega Montes