The WMC and IFMA Youth Commission took part in GAISF/IOC organised Athletes Safeguarding Workshop.
The Safeguarding Workshop was delivered and developed in collaboration with the IOC Sports Department and involved over 40 non-Olympic sports International Federations’ representatives joining to discuss ways to mitigate risks of abuse in a sport community.
Top topics covered were:
- What is abuse?
- Why does abuse happens?
- How do we understand the nature, scope and perception or risk?
o Environmental or Physical Isolation
o Situational Isolation
o Lifestyle and routine
o Culture
- What is missing inside the sport community to prevent abuse?
With this and other athletes welfare initiatives, the WMC and IFMA continues to solidify its commitment to putting athletes first.
“As a part of our strategic goal to raise standards across Muaythai, the WMC and IFMA are committed to creating a safe environment for our athletes across the globe: from ensuring best practice and recognising poor practice to understanding how to report concerns quickly and effectively, we believe that making Muaythai enjoyable and safe is everyone’s responsibility”, says IFMA Safeguarding Officer, Oscar Perez.
The course was designed to introduce the concept of environmental risk as a key component to the manifestation of abuse in the sports community and to stimulate IFs to consider the opportunity to take meaningful actions towards creating safe sporting environments through organisation risk assessments, mitigation strategies, education and awareness.
During two sessions the organisers created a platform for communication and knowledge transfer between IFs to discuss understanding of safeguarding concerns, as well as how to provide a secure environment for athletes.
