The vote in Qingdao brings to a close a fraught six months for members of ISAF Executive and Council. ISAF president Goran Petersson was outraged at the levels of abuse that had been levelled at him and some of his colleagues, following the controversial vote in Estoril.
As far as Petersson was concerned, justice and democracy were served last November, and that unfortunate choice of wording, the move to ‘reaffirm’, showed just how strongly he and ISAF Executive wanted the Estoril decision to stand. They must be mighty relieved at the way the vote worked out today.
Petersson said that because of the personal abuse that some members had been subjected to, the voting procedure earlier today would take place under a secret ballot. This is an unfortunate, but understandable, move. It makes individuals a good deal less accountable for their actions, and this is regrettable bearing in mind the accusations of conflict of interest that have swirled around some people these past months. But it’s understandable that Petersson should have made this move if the abuse has been as bad as he suggests.
To give the President his due, he also prefaced the meeting by reminding Council members of their duties and obligations to the wider interests of the sport (as opposed to national interests and Olympic medal tallies). Whether or not this reminder had any effect, we will never know. One can only hope that Council members voted for the right reasons.
This was not the meeting at which to raise the whole legitimacy of Council’s make-up, that will have to wait another day. But what is clearer than ever is that of the 38 members of Council, there should be at least one representative of the Athletes’ Commission at the table.
British Laser Radial sailor Laura Baldwin attended the meeting representing the Athletes Commission but wasn’t allowed to stand up and speak on behalf of the competing athletes in the Council Meeting. “It was disappointing not being able to make the case for competeing athletes” said Baldwin. So why wasn’t she allowed to speak? “ISAF is very shaken by the level of personal attacks that individuals have come under over the past few months, and they didn’t want to put me in a similar situation.”
Personal attack or not, Baldwin still would have liked her chance to speak. “I spoke to many Committee Members and really felt I was getting the athletes’ point across. What I think is being missed here is how these decisions have such a massive impact on sailors’ lives. The problem with the multihull being thrown out of the Games is that the skills to multihull sailing are so unique, it’s not going to be that easy for people to step cross into other Events and continue their careers. My fear is we’re going to lose a lot of these sailors from Olympic sailing.”
At the moment the athletes are just pawns in the game. ISAF did the right thing by creating an Athletes’ Commission. However at the moment it is a toothless organisation. To have Baldwin there at the meeting, and not allow her to speak when clearly she wanted to (threats of personal abuse or no), is patronising in the extreme.
If Goran Petersson is a true advocate of democracy, then in future he will allow the athletes a seat at the top table.
QUESTION: Should the Olympic sailors have a seat on ISAF Council, or would that confuse matters?
Posted in Olympic Classes | Tags: Goran Petersson, ISAF meeting, Laura Baldwin, qingdao
