Safeguarding policies and practices in International Federations: on the right track?

Interpersonal violence in sport—whether physical, sexual, psychological or neglect—remains a pressing public health concern, casting a shadow over the well-being of athletes at all levels. The impact of interpersonal violence, often referred to as ‘harassment and abuse’ in sport policy documents, extends far beyond the individual, touching families, healthcare systems and society.1 In recent years, safeguarding strategies have emerged as a vital strategy to protect athletes in the Olympic Movement, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as a key actor. However, the landscape of safeguarding policies and practices within Summer and Winter Olympic International Federations (IFs) still reveals considerable variation, often lacking consistency and comprehensive implementation. Recognising these gaps, an internal quality control project driven by the IOC Safe Sport Unit set out to establish a framework for monitoring and evaluating the safeguarding efforts of IFs. By developing a set of indicators (see table 1), the project aimed to create a baseline framework for measuring safeguarding activities and to provide a tool for tracking changes over time. Through the application of this framework, it becomes possible to identify key challenges and areas in need of attention, resulting in the ability to support IFs in strengthening their safeguarding activities by pinpointing critical gaps. View this table: Table 1 Proposed set of safeguarding indicators for sport organisations All 39 Summer and Winter Olympic IFs participated, reflecting the importance placed on safeguarding by the sports community. As of 2022, 85% of these IFs reported having safeguarding policies, while only just over half had fully implemented them. Safeguarding officers, who are critical to the success of these policies, were predominantly women (54%), but a significant proportion (38%) did not officially hold the title of safeguarding officer or did not receive specialised training (49%), suggesting that many are working without the full recognition, support or training their role requires. …