The Current Landscape in Olympic and Paralympic Sport with Rob Koehler

Without athletes, the Olympic and Paralympic Games would not be possible. Noah talks with Rob Koehler about why it’s imperative to understand athletes’ rights and why more accountability is needed in both the IOC and Court of Arbitration for Sport.

In this episode, we talk about…

The emotional story of Navid Afkari
Athlete activism in Belarus
Relationship between IOC Athletes’ Commission and the IOC
Rule 50 and it’s current implications for Olympic/Paralympic athletes
Double standard of how athletes are treated vs. IOC members
IOC financial priorities and why Global Athlete is pushing to abolish Rule 40
Issues with Court of Arbitration for Sport
What happened to British hammer thrower Mark Dry
Impending problems of the Tokyo Games and what it means for athletes’ safety

Memorable Quotes:

“Athletes that want to see better communities, want to stand up for social, racial justice—are being told that they can’t do it, and if they are going to do it—we’ll tell you when you can do it. And that is not freedom of expression. You cannot tell someone when they can’t speak up and when they can speak up.”
“If we’re going to look at the entire anti-doping system, we can’t look at things in silo, we need to look at it as a complete picture, and one of those pieces of the pie is the Court of Arbitration of Sport.”

Guest Bio:

Rob Koehler is the Director General of Global Athlete and formerly the Deputy Director General of the World Anti-Doping Agency and a strong independent voice for athlete rights.

Links to resources:

IOC

United for Navid Campaign

IOC Athletes’ Commission 

Olympic Commercialization and Player Compensations: A Review of Olympic Financial Reports

WADA: World Anti-Doping Agency

Court of Arbitration for Sport

Follow Rob on Twitter @RobKoehler2 and follow Global Athlete @GlobalAthleteHQ. Get in touch at [email protected] and join the movement at globalathlete.org.