The 2019 Pan American Games
From July 26th to August 11th, Team Canada excelled at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games. We wanted to congratulate our fellow athletes for their extraordinary achievements. With 152 medals (35 gold, 64 silver and 53 bronze), it is fair to say that our Tokyo 2020 Olympics preparations are on track. We stand behind our Team Canada community in this final stretch and encourage everyone to give everything they have during this last push.
New face on the Pan American Athletes’ Commission
Do you know Melissa Humana-Paredes? This well-accomplished Canadian beach volleyball player won gold at the last world championships in Germany with her teammate Sarah Pavan. The duo claimed Canada’s first world title and clinched a berth in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. On top of that, Melissa has just been elected to the Pan American Athlete’s commission. Melissa’s experiences and her multilingualism will help break down barriers and build relationships with our counterparts in the Americas. We’re extremely happy to have Melissa follow on Alexandra Orlando’s footsteps, whose term just came to an end. The Canadian #AthleteVoice will be well represented via Melissa!
Safe Sport: a priority in the Canadian sport system
AthletesCan led the athlete effort to produce a consensus statement which was presented to the Federal Sport Minister and the wider Canadian sport community at the national safe sport summit this May. This athlete statement was developed at the athlete safe sport summit, run by AthletesCAN with support from the COC and other partners. With the help of the Safe Sport working group and the experts on hand at the Athlete Summit; the wider athlete groups are working on providing input for the first draft of the Universal Code of Conduct. Lastly, a partnership with Respect Group has been formed to launch Respect in Sport training for sport community members. We will continue our support with AthletesCAN in order to support real change within the safe sport landscape. Find more information on the AthletesCan website.
2019 IOC Athletes Forum
Lastly, last April, our very own commission chair, Oluseyi Smith was at the most recent IOC Athletes Forum in Lausanne to engage with the IOC Athletes’ Commission as well as other athlete representatives from all across the world. Topics such as the IOC Finances, Athlete365 Business Accelerator, Olympic Ambassador Program, Athlete Rights Declaration, IOC Education Support, Safe Sport and World Olympians Association were touched upon. It was an opportunity not just to connect with our international counterparts but also to establish working relationships with IOC staff. The conversation may move slowly, but the IOC and other stakeholders remain open to discussion.
If you have any feedback or comments, please let us know. As always, reach out any time and make sure you follow us on social!
Yours truly,
COC Athletes’ Commission
