The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has announced the composition of its Olympic and Paralympic Athlete Engagement Teams for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Athlete Engagement refers to efforts to directly involve athletes in promoting ethics and integrity in sport. These initiatives aim to raise awareness, educate and hold athletes accountable on key issues such as anti-doping, competition manipulation and respect for the Olympic and Paralympic values.
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By making the athletes themselves ambassadors and relays of information, these programs seek to encourage the adhesion and appropriation of rules and good practices by the sports community.
If this initiative aims to promote a culture of clean sport, it must be noted that African representation within these bodies remains limited.
With only one African athlete, South Africa’s Khotso Mokoena, on the eleven-member Olympic team, and no representatives on the Paralympic team, the continent still appears to be largely underrepresented. This low visibility raises questions about WADA’s ability to fully integrate African realities and specificities into its awareness and training programs.
Thus, South African Khotso Mokoena, four-time Olympic champion in athletics and silver medalist in long jump, is part of the team alongside representatives from America (United States, Canada, Salvador, Grenada), Europe (Hungary, Finland) and Asia (Philippines). The Paralympic Games athlete engagement team does not include any Africans, being made up of athletes from Croatia, Canada and Poland.
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Of the two teams, the African continent is therefore represented by only one member out of 10, to which will be added New Zealander Nikki Hamblin, a member of the AMA education team.The latter will be on hand to provide advice and support for any education issues that arise during WADA’s Olympic Athlete Engagement Program.“, the Agency points out. For comparison, Europe has 4 representatives, the Americas 4, and Asia 1.
This low representation of Africa raises questions about the ability of these teams to fully promote a culture of clean sport adapted to African realities. However, the direct involvement of high-level athletes in these anti-doping education programs is essential and aims precisely to promote the adherence and understanding of athletes through peer interactions.
As Karine Henrie of the AMA points out, “Interactions with those who have been in the same position can have a marked impact on an athlete’s experience at the Games“. Studies have also shown an increased effectiveness of 20 to 30% of doping prevention campaigns carried out by former athletes.
Khotso Mokoena, four-time Olympian (athletics), Olympic silver medalist in long jump and chairman of the Sportsmen’s Commission of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee.. Icon Sport via Getty Images
While the inclusion of a renowned African athlete like Khotso Mokoena is a step in the right direction, WADA should consider strengthening its efforts to better represent the diversity of global sport within its teams. Strengthened African representation would allow better contextualization of anti-doping issues for the continent and would facilitate the appropriation of this theme by local athletes and sports institutions.
Improved diversity in the WADA Athlete Council
Beyond the entry teams, the WADA Athletes’ Council, a key advisory body, displays greater diversity with the presence of Gaby Ahrens from Namibia and Humphrey Kayange from Kenya. However, of the 11 members of this Council, only two are from Africa, less than 20% of the total composition.
This under-representation raises legitimate questions about global sports governance and its ability to accurately reflect the diversity of stakeholders and issues. Indeed, the direct involvement of high-level athletes from different backgrounds is essential to promote the adherence and understanding of anti-doping programs by the athletes concerned.
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Beyond the sole question of the fight against doping, this issue raises broader challenges in terms of sports governance in Africa. The low representativeness of international bodies reflects structural gaps in terms of expertise, training and support for African sports stakeholders.
