Championship sponsors
International athlete Scott Winton asks a few awkward questions.
Running
the marathon for New Zealand at this year’s World Athletics Championships
was a very proud moment for me. I was also happy to learn that the athletics
governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF),
was supporting Make Poverty History.
However, the world’s nations face another, very different challenge – global warming. Ali Shareef competed valiantly for the Maldives in the 100 metres sprint at the Championships. It is low-lying developing countries like his which are under the most severe threat from the sea-level rise that results from climate change.
Why, then, did the IAAF choose the world’s largest car manufacturer, Toyota, as the major sponsor at this year’s Championships? Was it an oversight, or is the IAAF guilty of hypocrisy?
In the 1960s, athletics typified the Olympic movement and its strictly amateur code. In those days an athlete could be suspended from the sport just for receiving money from a corporate sponsor. Of course, there were ways around it. But these days there is no pretense. Top athletes are richly rewarded for their talents.
Whilst this is empowering athletes, it isn’t all good news. Without an ethical code in place, any company can associate itself with our sport, regardless of its environmental or human rights record. Any athlete who wanted to compete at the World Championships in Helsinki had to do so with ‘Toyota’ emblazoned across their singlet.
I asked an IAAF representative if it has an ethical code of practice with respect to corporate sponsorship. ‘If we started discriminating against car companies, where would we stop? Nike? Reebok?’ was the response.
| I don't know where we should stop. But I think the world's largest car manufacturer would be a good place to start. |
I don’t know where we should stop. But I think the world’s largest car manufacturer would be a good place to start.
Toyota may claim that they sponsored the World Championships in order to promote brand loyalty. But you don’t have to be a genius to realize that they wouldn’t have done it unless they thought it would increase sales of their product.
The appeal of athletics is global. Viewing figures for the Championships in China – the hosts of the 2008 Olympics – were massive. This is where the growth in the automobile industry is predicted to be. China currently has 0.19 cars per 1,000 people, but that is likely to quadruple over the next 20 years. Automobile makers are salivating at the thought.
But for those whose lives are threatened by global warming, it’s a ticking time bomb. I put this to one of the most popular men in athletics, Frankie Fredericks. Namibia’s Olympic silver medalist sprinter has been around the top level of athletics for many years and has been an outstanding ambassador for the sport.
A popular figure, Fredericks’ perpetual smile disappeared and was replaced with a look of concentration as he listened to my question about Toyota. ‘I agree,’ he said. ‘But how can we afford to pay prize money to athletes if we don’t get a major sponsor? A lot of these athletes come from poor countries and need the money.’
But more often than not the prize money goes to athletes who are already very well off. Even if they use this money to help the poor, at what cost does it come?
Fredericks serves on the IAAF athlete committee and, after careful consideration, said he would raise the issue at the next meeting. A step in the right direction.
As I watched from high up in Helsinki’s Olympic stadium I marvelled at the colour and pageantry of the athletes as they participated in the closing ceremony. The IAAF is a well-respected organization which prided itself on the fact that there were over 200 competing nations in Helsinki – the biggest ever. They should be given credit for getting behind the Make Poverty History campaign.
But I couldn’t help looking beyond the smiling faces of the flag bearers of countries like Ethiopia and India and thinking about the people of these nations struggling with everyday life.
As athletes, could we be doing more than simply wearing a white wrist band? Do sporting bodies have a responsibility to the citizens of their member states? Or should they continue to act like corporations and put profit above all else?
These are questions for us as athletes and for the powers that be. In 90 years’ time Ali Shareef from the Maldives won’t have anyone following in his footsteps if, as predicted, the picturesque islands have been engulfed by rising sea levels. That will be a very tangible reminder of how we failed to make poverty history.
ni | home | contact
us
top
of the page