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corruption. We have heard many allegations in cycling and in other sports, match
fixing in soccer. That is something that, on the one hand, is very difficult to tackle,
on the other hand, is very important to address. But, basically, the way forward to
tackle corruption is what I would call transparency, accountability and corporate
governance of ruling bodies. Whenever a sports organisation has to award a
competition to bidders, whenever a sports organisation has to sign contracts with
sponsors or televisions, it should be audited, it should be transparent, and it
should be open to scrutiny and not a back door deal.
We will definitely also have to fight for values. There is a decrease in the
values of fair play, because of the pressure of winning at all costs. There is a very
important educational message to be sent to athletes and also, very important,
to coaches and also, very important, to future sports leaders. And, basically, in
the same area of values of sport, I am getting more and more concerned by
the physical and the psychological damage inflicted upon young athletes, because
of over-training and over-competition. Training methods are becoming too tough;
they are becoming too severe. And I believe it will be the task of the Intentional
Olympic Committee and its Medical Commission, together with the Medical
Commissions of all the International Federations and National Olympic Committees,
to study scientifically the different training regimes and to see up to which
limit a young athlete can train and compete. And I wish we had a broad education
message and try with the governing bodies to stop the abuse that is happening
today.
And we have also in the values of sport a great responsibility in helping
athletes at the end of their carriers. What we do today is to detect scientifically
young athletes and tomorrow, with genetic screening, we will be able to
determine with great accuracy whether someone is gifted for endurance or
resistance sport or strength sports. We ask these young athletes who are fourteen,
fifteen, and sixteen to start training very heavily. And most of this training goes at
the expense of acquiring skills for future life. They do not go to school any more,
they do not study, because they are in training camps, they are abroad, and we
continue to help these athletes during their carrier. And then, at the end of their
career, when they are thirty, thirty-five, we shake their hands, we say thank you
very much, good luck and help yourself. We cannot do that. We have a social
responsibility in helping athletes at the end of their careers to integrate into
normal social and professional lives. And there are ways to do that. We have to
invest our resources into that réintégration process. We have to work with the
governments, because many governments have now started to have very good
schemes whereby athletes get facilities in studying and training at the same time,
where they can acquire skills in special sport schools, skills that will allow them
to have a normal professional life. But not all governments are doing that, and it
is, I believe, the responsibility of the Olympic Movement to push the governments
into that direction. We could easily also work with our own sponsors. The
International Olympic Committee has eleven big multinational sponsors like
Coca-Cola, Visa, etc. These are world-wide brands. They have subsidiaries in all
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