Play the Game: Gender in Sport, a case of discrimination

Find the Play the Game 2011 website with more information, photos, video, program, etc. HERE.

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We're posting audio and video from sessions from the 2011 Play the Game conference at the German Sports University in Cologne of particular interest to the FGG and its member organizations.

Here is the session on "Gender in Sport - a case of discrimination?" which features a presentation of the call for the end to gender discrimination at the Olympics supported by the FGG:



The session also featured a prsentation on the work of our friends at the Norwegian Olympic Committee, and a though-provoking suggestion that women's sport brings specific values that enrich sport as a whole.

Gender testing and the Olympics: a look back at Play the Game conference with leaders on the issue

Find the Play the Game 2011 website with more information, photos, video, program, etc. HERE.

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With the Olympics fast approaching, the issue of gender in sport is again in the news. A great article in the Toronto Star looks at the current situation in an article entitled "Policing feminity", which gives a good idea of the tenor of the issue, developed in a follow-up in Jezebel.



A highly contested discussion at last year's Play the Game conference in Cologne was about intersex athletes and gender verification in sport. A leading voice in the Olympic Movement, Arne Ljungqvist, presented the evolution of testing, an evolution disputed by Georg M. Facius and Bruce Kidd.

At the one hour mark, FGG delegate Marc Naimark asks why the policy developed by Dr Ljungqvist excludes the notion of male hyperandrogenism: why is excessive natural levels of testosterone an unfair advantage for women, but not for men? Are there no limits to male testosterone? The more the better, as long as it's "natural"? Ljungqvist replied: "Androgens are not a problem with males. We have two categories: male and female." Meaning, I suppose, that testosterone = male, although men and women each need and naturally produce "male" and "female" hormones.

Video from Play the Game conference: "Little Difference, Huge Impact: The Gender Challenge to Sport"

Find the Play the Game 2011 website with more information, photos, video, program, etc. HERE.

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We're posting audio and video from sessions from the 2011 Play the Game conference at the German Sports University in Cologne of particular interest to the FGG and its member organizations.

Here is the session on "Little Difference, Huge Impact: The Gender Challenge to Sport".


Part 1: Presentations from Daniela Schaaf, Jörg-Uwe Nieland, Tine Rindum Teilmann, Annette Hofmann (chair: Nikki Dryden)

Part 2: Presentation from Laura Robinson, then panel with Daniela Schaaf, Jörg-Uwe Nieland, Tine Rindum Teilmann, Annette Hofmann, Laura Robinson

Audio of FGG contribution to 2011 Play the Game conference

Find the Play the Game 2011 website with more information, photos, video, program, etc. HERE.

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Audio from the session on "transgender challenges" from the 2011 Play the Game conference at the German Sports University in Cologne is now available.

Speaking at the session were Honorata Jakubowska of the Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Marc Naimark, FGG VP for External Affairs, and Zeljko Blace of FGG member qSport.

Play the Game: the Cologne Consensus

Find the Play the Game 2011 website with more information, photos, video, program, etc. HERE.

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Play the Game 2011
Cologne, 6 October 2011
COLOGNE CONSENSUS: TOWARDS A GLOBAL CODE FOR GOVERNANCE IN SPORT

The participants in the Play the Game 2011 conference, held at the German Sport University Cologne, state that the problems related to mismanagement an corruption in sports are serious and widespread.

The conference participants, including stakeholders and experts from over 40 countries, are convinced that the fundamental integrity and credibility of the sports movement is at stake, and that this is weakening the role of sport as a positive force in society.

Existing principles, mechanisms and institutions to enhance good governance and counter corruption have proved inadequate.

The Play the Game initiative and its conference participants remain committed to influencing sports governing and oversight bodies, in every way possible,regarding the urgent need for change. Play the Game 2011 recognizes the central role of organized sport, and encourages the international sports movement and, in particular, the International Olympic Committee to take a leading role in bringing about the necessary
change.

Therefore we propose the establishment of a Global Code for Governance in Sport based on a series of international standards covering inter alia:

1. Governance documents and practices, and democratic procedures
2. Representation principles, including age, gender, ethnicity, tenure and stakeholder issues
3. Principles of autonomy and cooperation with governments
4. Transparency and accountability, both operational and financial
5. Monitoring, compliance and enforcement, including the feasibility of an independent agency to this end
6. Development of grass-root sport
7. Education, sharing of information and best practices
8. Equity, inclusiveness, non-discrimination and minority protection

As a first step we encourage the IOC to organize a world conference before the end of 2012 in cooperation with governments, intergovernmental bodies such as the United Nations, the Council of Europe, OECD, the European Union and Interpol, sports stakeholders such as SportAccord, ANOC and non-Olympic sports organizations, as well as with representatives of elected athletes, sponsors, the gambling industry, the media community, academics, NGO’s and other relevant experts.

The conference should be used to draft the code and the international standards for good governance in sport. The code and the standards would be formally adopted by the IOC, the NOC’s, the international federations and their respective subsidiaries. Recognition and participation in international sports activities, as well as the bidding for and hosting of international sports events, should be made conditional upon adherence to the code and the standards

Play the Game: Two investigative journalists win 2011 awards

Find the Play the Game 2011 website with more information, photos, video, program, etc. HERE.

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From the Play the Game press release:

The Play the Game Award is awarded by the organisation Play the Game which aims to strengthen the basic ethical values of sport and encourage democracy, transparency and freedom of expression in world sport. It pays tribute to an individual or a group of persons who in their professional careers or as volunteers in sport have made an outstanding effort to strengthen the basic ethical values of sport.

Weinreich and Jennings were selected as the recipients of this year’s award by a committee consisting of board members and directors from the Danish Institute for Sports Studies and Play the Game and the previous award winner, Declan Hill. The winners were announced in Cologne, Germany, at Play the Game 2011, the seventh world communication conference on sport and society.

Announcing the awards, Henrik Brandt, Director of the Institute for Danish Sports Studies, said that it took only a few seconds for the committee to decide that Weinreich and Jennings were this year's obvious candidates for the Play the Award.

"It is not so much the recent work by the two award winners that moves us to give them the award this year. Rather, it is due to the excellent work of the FIFA Executive Board during recent months to highlight the fact that the world’s two most outstanding investigative journalists in the field of sports have been pointing the fingers in the right direction for more than a decade; that leads us to giving them the award."

"They have always been accused of exaggerating the problems in FIFA, but last year has shown that they were understating," Brandt continued.
Over the years, Jennings and Weinreich have been despised, criticised and excluded from doing their job by sports leaders, politicians, and even by their own colleagues. Still, they have been determined in pursuing their investigations.

"They not only sought, but also found the documentation, and that is a great achievement which has been fundamental for the world public’s understanding of FIFA as it is today," Brandt said.

Brandt also paid tribute to Weinreich and Jennings' commitment to supporting Play the Game and young journalists wanting to break into the field of investigative sports journalism.

"They are a symbol of the idea of Play the Game, which is that by researching, documenting, exposing, discussing, publishing, co-operating and asking questions in a global network we can help each other and contribute to better sports policies and better sports lives for people all over the world," Brandt said.

Play the Game, Day 4: Is the only difference between FIFA and the mafia the lack of corpses?

Find the Play the Game 2011 website with more information, photos, video, program, etc. HERE.

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On Thursday, the closing day of the conference, I started with a session on mega-events, featuring French NGO “Sport et citoyenneté”, with Project Manager Marc-Olivier Neu speaking on “the organisation of mega sports events: a double-edged sword”, while Annie Sugier returned to the subject of the visibility of women's participation in such events.

Nikki Dryden (photo Play the Game)

Nikki Dryden, a former Olympic diver who now works as a human rights lawyer, whose talk was entitled “Behind and Beyond the Podium: Change Must Come to Global Sporting”, starting with her own increasing awareness of the social responsibility of athletes durfing her own career, and the litany of problems mega-events generate for athletes, but more importantly for the communities that host these events, in particular the poor, the marginal, the excluded. After previous talks in which speakers noted the temptation of holders of the rights to mega-events to choose as hosts authoritation regimes where there is no rule of law to prevent event organizers from riding roughshod over local communities, Ms Dryden pointed out that democracies, even one as exemplary as Canada, bend over backwards to “adapt” their legislation to the exorbitant demands of rights holders.

Lastly, Daniela Schaaf of the German Sport University spoke on the topic “Mega event – mega impact? How sports tournaments affect national advertising” with an analysis of the perhaps surprisingly large effect of major events on advertising, with an impact far beyond the official corporate sponsors of the event.

Jens Weinrich and Andrew Jennings
(photo Play the Game)

At the same time as the session I attended was taking place another session on corruption in FIFA. This theme was continued in a session on change in sport. Andrew Jennings, the journalist responsible for the BBC reports exposing corruption in FIFA.

Jennings and De Gregorio
(photo Play the Game)

He called on Walter De Gregorio, the newly named director of communications for FIFA, and a last-minute registrant to the conference, to respond to his accusations that FIFA met the definition of organized crime. The response of De Gregorio was somewhat surprising. He said that comparing FIFA to the mafia was outrageous, because unlike the mafia, FIFA had never killed anybody. (!) (More on this HERE)

Harold Mayne-Nicholls and Ingrid Beutler
(photo Play the Game)

Also during this session, Ingrid Beutler, the manager of a new unit in SportAccord responsible for sport integrity and social responsibility, spoke of the rapid progress made in the area of matchfixing, an area where there is a consensus on action, and a domain easier to tackle than corruption and poor governance in the international federations that make up SportAccord.

A more positive viewpoint on the positive impact of sport came from Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the former president of the Chilean football federation.

The next session for me was on disability, with a series of talks showing the impact of media portrayals on perception of disability in sport, and analyses of how various media treat the topic.

FIFA was back on the agenda in the afternoon, with a long intervention by Jérôme Champagne, an ally of Sepp Blatter, and FIFA's officer for international relations before being pushed out by Blatter who feared Champagne as a rival. I for one had difficulty listening to the recommendations of an accomplice to the Blatter regime who insisted on the great progress made during his time in the organization.

Also during this session were talks from Jean-Loup Chappelet, who spoke on the “governance of sport governance: The limits to autonomy”, analyzing the organization of bodies such as the IOC and FIFA, and from Anne Schwoebel of Transparency International Switzerland, who explained the lack of transparency of international sports organisations in Switzerland, the understanding host of so many such organizations.

The main outcome of the conference will be a declaration, the Cologne Consensus, which we will present as soon as the final draft is published.

The FGG thanks Play the Game for an outstanding conference and an opportunity to share the Gay Games movement with so many players in the world of international sport.

Play the Game, Day 3, Part 2

Find the Play the Game 2011 website with more information, photos, video, program, etc. HERE.

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After a long day, with a first session that started at 9am, it was 6:45pm and time for the session in which I would be speaking. With two other interesting parallel sessions (on tech doping and sports journalism) competing for the eyes of participants, and session fatigue ruling out dozens of people, I was pleased that about 20 persons (after some prodding of coffee breakers from volunteers) were present for our session on “transgender challenges”.

The session opend with a talk from Honorata Jakubowska from Poznan, Poland, who spoke on “Gender (division) troubles in sports”. She questioned the dichotomy of dividing sport into men's and women's competitions, claiming that offering women the possibility of competing against men would raise the profile of women athletes. In my opinion, as I said in my talk, this would not result in greater visibility for women athletes, but rather in the exclusion of almost all women from competitive sport. I recalled that the demands for a protected space for women's sport came mainly from women themselves.

My talk followed, and I took a different tack than other speakers: rather than rely on Powerpoint bullet points, I used a slideshow of photos from past Gay Games, with a healthy dose of images from last year's Gay Games VIII in Cologne, showing sports in the very venues where this conference was taking place. My goal was to show the Gay Games as an event for all sorts of athletes, highlighting our principle of Inclusion. I pointed out the tension between respect for the standards of sport and our need to respect our values, leading to a policy that is very generous with regard to the participation of transgender athletes in their real gender, even if this is not their legal gender.

The final talk of the session was by Zeljko Blace of FGG member organization qSport Croatia. Like Ms Jakubowska, he strayed from the ostensible topic of transgender athletes to speak of his work on “QueerSport”, a category that defies categorization, but that is full of intriguing potential for expression and change.

The discussion afterwards was very rich, with engaging questions from the audience and a lively exchange among the speakers. Alas, these parallel sessions weren't live streamed, so video is not currently available.

Kim Schimmel, Nikki Dryden,
Annette Hoffmann

The day concluded with a dinner hosted by the conference organizers and the Danish Institute of Sport Studies and aimed at networking and exchange on the key topics of the conference. Clearly while video streaming is a great option, there is nothing like the personal exchanges possible at such a conference.

Play the Game: Day 3, part 1

Find the Play the Game 2011 website with more information, photos, video, program, etc. HERE.

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"Spornification" (photo Play the Game)

On day 3 of the conference, I followed the morning track on gender. The first session, on "the gender challenge to sport" opened with a study on the movement "from sexualization of sport to spornofication". The speakers analyzed the need for ever more provocative images of athletes. Of interest to us was the ever increasing explicit appeal of male athletes' bodies to gay men.

Next, Tine Rindum Teilmann, a member of the IOC's Women in Sport Commission and chair of the IPC Women in Sport Commission, spoke on efforts to engage sports federations in concrete steps to improve the place of women in positions of power in these institutions.

Annette Hoffmann

Finally, concrete examples of action in sport were given with the case of the legal attack on the discriminatory exclusion of women from ski jumping at the Vancouver Olympics. And in another look at Vancouver, an analysis was made of violence against women associated with ice hockey, whose culture is closely associated with team and violence.

View Part 1 and Part 2

Arne Ljungqvist

The second session concerned the "intersex challenge to sport", a subject with huge consequences for athletes. Arne Ljungqvist, Chairman of the IOC Medical Commission asked: "Is there a need for a third sex in sport?" His answer was "no".Ljungqvist is responsible for the end to "gender verification" in the IAAF and the IOC.
Georg M. Facius who followed Ljungqvist violently accused him of reinstating gender verification with the new IOC policy on intersex athletes, a claim that Ljungqvist denies, saying that the question is one not of gender verification, but of confirming eligibility of athletes to compete in women's divisions.

Kidd, Facius, Ljungqvist 

Bruce Kidd, an academic and former Olympic athlete, proposed an alternative to current biochemical-based thinking in the form of gender self-declaration.

View HERE.

Martin Hardie (photo Play the Games)

In the afternoon, I attended a session on doping, the highlight of which was a look at "Doping and surveillance - privacy rights vs. fair play practices" byNils Zurawski. He is astonished that in a society so concerned with privacy rights, the surveillance creep associated with anti-doping efforts goes almost without comment.

Other talks looked at cycling, with talks by Martin Hardie and Christophe Brissonneau with Bertrand Fincoeur.

Brissonneau and Fincoeur

A particular shocking story was told by Steven Selthoffer on the case of Claudia Pechstein.

View HERE.

Before this session, WADA was the focus of a special session, which can be viewed here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

A later session on tech doping can be viewed HERE.

Play the Games: Day 2

Find the Play the Game 2011 website with more information, photos, video, program, etc. HERE.

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Rai

Day 2 of the conference began with a plenary session entitled "Chasing the White Elephants - Mega-events for the Public Good". The first speaker was football start Rai, whose talk had been rescheduled from the prevous day. My first observation is that he is tall and big. One of the particularities of Play the Games is that many of the speakers are former elite athletes, but even among this crowd, he stood out. He spoke on the contrast between the promise of Brazil's hosting of the FIFA World Cup and the Summer Olympics, and the social and economic realities of the country.

Ian Nuttal (photo Play the Game)

The bulk of the session was devoted to an analysis of the impact of the construction of stadiums for mega events. In a word: they are almost all failures. The sanctioning bodies are able to demand these investments which burden cities and countries for decades, simply because they can. In a period when the IOC and others are proclaiming their commitment to "sustainable development", why do they continue to ignore the failure of sustainable economic development provoked by their absurd requirements for mega stadium white elephants?

Stefan Smanski (photo Play the Game)

Also in the session, a discussion of the economic impact of the 2012 Olympics, which will be meager. As an example, the majority of workers in the area of the future Olympic Park come not from the local boroughs, and not even from London, but from outside the city.

View Part 1 and Part 2.

Cornelia Rogall-Grothe (photo Play the Game)

During this session, the conference participants were greeted by Cornelia Rogall-Grothe, the Ministry of the Interior State Secretary in charge of sport.

Wilfried Lemke (photo Play the Game)

The afternoon opened with a plenary entitled "Fair Play, Fair Pay: How to create growth in grassroot sport". Among the speakers were Wilfried Lemke, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General for sport for development and peace. He focused on the need for local support, lest a short-term program become a waste of money rather than a long-term investment in development by sport.

View Part 1 and Part 2

Annie Sugier

I then attended a workshop on "Gender in sport - a case of discrimination?" with a great talk by Annie Sugier about the exclusion of women from the Olympic teams of several Muslim countries, and the refusal of others to respect the Olympic Charter's ban on visible religious signs in sports competitions. Women athletes are forced, explicitly or implicitly, to wear head coverings, or full body coverings, in competition.

Anja Veum

Anja Veum of the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports presented the guidelines developed to prevent sexual harrasment and violence, while Thomas Grant of the University of Idaho imagines a set of values other than the dominant masculine values of social order. What would sport based on feminine values like caring offer to all?

Marko Begovic

Marko Begovic spoke of the study he's managed on sport in Montenegro, which demonstrates the huge challenges to women's participation, beyond the more general difficulty of sport for all in the country.

Play the Game: Day 1

Find the Play the Game 2011 website with more information, photos, video, program, etc. HERE.

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Heading to first plenary

Among the highlights (from my point of view) of Monday's opening session:

Doris Pack, a member of the European Parliament, welcomed participants. Ms Pack has been a leader in efforts to expand the role of the European Union in sport.

Researchers presented the results of the International Sports Press Survey 2011, and the need for further reseach. Among the (unsurprising) findings are the lack of women writers of sports stories (8%), the dominance of men among athletes featured (85%), and the dominance of football.

Hans Bruyninckx (photo Play the Game)

I particularly enjoyed a provocative talk by Hans Bruyninckx on "Obsession with rules vs. mistrust in being ruled" which highlights a problem close to my heart: the insistence by the undemocratic sports institutions that they are a power unto themselves, not subject to the rule of law of elected governments, while working hand in hand with autocratic regimes.

Richard Pound

Richard Pound of the IOC and founding president of WADA, then spoke on the fight against corruption... but his dollop of realism wasn't enough to respond to Bruyninckx's critique.

View Part 1 and Part 2.

Break dancing

Students from the university offered a break dance performance during the welcome reception. I must note the great work by the 85 students of the German Sports University who volunteered with great energy, efficiency, and friendliness during the conference. Many of them had volunteered at Gay Games VIII, and those who had arrived too late to do so expressed regret at missing this opportunity which has marked the student body.

(photo Play the Game)

In the evening, I attended the workshop on doping prevention, which was rather disappointing, but illustrative of some of the opportunities and challenges. Among the opportunities was an innovative pilot program for doping prevention among youth, and a talk by John Gleaves on integrating treatment as a key component in anti-doping efforts. More disappointing was a talk from a researcher from the German Sports University on a pedagogical program against "doping", which demonstrates the creep of the term "doping" to the use of sustances on the WADA list for any purpose whatsoever, including anorexia, body dysmorphia, or simply a desire to improve ones appearance. While efforts to improve children's self-confidence to better enable them to resist the appeal of dangerous substances are great, it seems dangerous to allow sports doping, and the invasive practices invovled in fighting it, to englobe such broad areas of non-sporting life.

View the session HERE.

Play the Game opens in Cologne

Find the Play the Game 2011 website with more information, photos, video, program, etc. HERE.

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Participants and spectators from Gay Games VIII will be familiar with the main auditorium of the German Sports University, the venue for plenary sessions of Play the Game, an international conference that takes a critical look at the world of sport. This year, the focus is on corruption, match fixing, the perils of mega-events like the Olympics, consequences of anti-doping programs, and issues relating to gender in sport.

Federation of Gay Games to present talk at Play the Game conference

Find the Play the Game 2011 website with more information, photos, video, program, etc. HERE.

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PLAY THE GAME 2011: Bringing change to the heart of sport
German Sport University, Cologne, Germany
3-6 October 2011

The Federation of Gay Games, represented by VP for External Affairs Marc Naimark, will be participating in Play the Game, an international conference on change in sport, to be held from 3 to 6 October 2011 at the German Sport University in Sportpark Muengersdorf, which participants in Gay Games VIII will remember as the main sports hub.

The topic of the talk is "Participation, Inclusion, and Personal Best: How the Gay Games strive to include women and transgender athletes", and will be part of a session entitled "Transgender Challenges". Also speaking in that session will be Honorata Jakubowska on the topic "Gender (division) troubles in sports", and Zeljko Blace of FGG member organization qSport Croatia, who will speak on "QueerSport: tension between sport normativity and queer expression".

View conference sessions online: 

For the seventh time Play the Game will gather stakeholders in sport to join the discussion on essential issues in world sport at the world communication conference Play the Game 2011 - bringing change to the heart of sport. Play the Game 2011 is organised in cooperation with the German Sport University in Cologne, Germany. Many topics from the international sports agenda will be up for debate on Play the Game 2011 from 3-6 October.

If you are unable to attend Play the Game, you still have the opportunity to follow the plenary debates and presentations through live streaming from the conference on our streaming page and after they take place with video on demand. Some parallel sessions will also be available after the conference as audio or video on demand.

The full schedule, for which sessions will be live-streamed including possible changes in the programme, is shown on the streaming page of the conference.

Watch Play the Game 2011 live.

Most presentations from the speakers will also be available for download the day after the presentation is scheduled and pictures from the conference will be uploaded continuously on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/play_the_game/) and the conference website.
The following sessions are scheduled to be streamed live during the conference:

Monday 3 October:13.00-16.15: Opening Session: Play the Game 2011 - Changing the Heart of Sport
16.30-18.30: Plenary session: Match Fixing - the biggest single threat to sport?
20.00-20.40: Main theme session: Volleygate
20.40-21.45: Main theme session: The Middle East on the Move

Tuesday 4 October:9.00-11.45: Plenary session: Chasing the White Elephants - Mega-events for the Public Good
14.15-16.40: Plenary session: Fair Play, Fair Pay: How to create growth in grass root sport

Wednesday 5 October:9.00-10.55: Main theme session: Little Difference, Huge Impact: The Gender Challenge to Sport
11.00-12.45: Main theme session: The intersex challenge to sport?
14.00-16.40: Plenary Session: WADA reforms - which changes are most urgent in anti-doping policies?

Thursday 6 October:10.50-12.45: Change in Sport Day - part 1: Symptoms and diagnosis
15.30-18.20: Change in Sport Day - part 2: Finding the cure
18.20: Closing session

See more on the individual sessions in the conference programme.