During a dedicated meeting at the FIH headquarters yesterday, Annie Panter, outgoing Co-Chair of the Athletes’ Committee, passed on the baton to the new Committee members, focusing particularly on the transfer of valuable knowledge. Led by FIH Sport and Development Director Jon Wyatt, the meeting served to ensure a smooth transition following the online election of eight new Regular Member and two new Liaison Members for the FIH Athletes’ Committee by players around the world last autumn. FIH CEO Thierry Weil also joined in to address the athletes’ representatives.
The new Athletes’ Committee, composed of retired and active players, will first focus on ensuring regular, comprehensive communication with their peers and explore various channels, especially in Social Media.
New Co-Chair Rogier Hofman, a previous member of the Dutch National Team who now represents the athletes’ voices with full voting rights on the FIH Executive Board, said:
“I feel very honoured that I have been chosen for the FIH Athletes Committee and by dedicating myself to this I want to relieve the players so they can focus on their sporting-careers but ensure that all norms, values and most important topics that apply to all players worldwide are heard and implemented within the FIH and our sport in general.”
The new athlete representatives agreed to delegate one of their members to each FIH Committee or Panel in order to ensure athletes’ views are considered across all areas of the organisation, including fields such as health and safety, commercial and broadcast, rules and competitions. The Athletes’ Committee is also determined to strengthen ties with the IOC Athletes’ Commission and the WADA Athlete Committee.
Outgoing Co-Chairs Marsha Cox and Annie Panter said:
“We have enjoyed the challenges of chairing the FIH Athletes’ Committee over the last two years and have done our very best to ensure the athlete voice is heard strongly within the FIH. We would like to thank all of the outgoing members for their work and wish the incoming members the very best for their time on the Athletes’ Committee. We have a huge amount of confidence in the new Chairs, Kate Richardson-Walsh and Rogier Hofman, to lead the Athletes’ Committee forward and become ever more effective. We trust that the FIH will continue to provide the level of support necessary to ensure that athletes across the world are able to contribute towards the governance of our sport.”
The next meeting of the FIH Athletes’ Committee, which will serve to agree on a full strategy for the next four years, will take place in in September.
ABOUT THE FIH ATHLETES' COMMITTEE
The Athletes’ Committee serves as a consultative body and makes recommendations to the FIH Executive Board, FIH Committees, Advisory Panels and other bodies. The roles cover seeking and providing feedback to the FIH on behalf of all athletes, whilst developing and promoting resources and initiatives to athletes such as health and welfare, anti-doping, social media, the need to create stars to attract new fans, career preparation and management. The Committee also plays a central role in liaising with the Athletes’ Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other sporting organisations to enable the sharing of information and research and ultimately developing the game of hockey.
Click here to learn more about the Athletes’ Committee’s role and composition.
