First IOC Good Governance Workshop of 2026 tackles topic of elections

Last year’s workshop series kicked off a new approach to promoting the IPACS Sport Governance Benchmark & Guidelines. These workshops for IOC-recognised federations followed up on the 2024 webinar series’ broad overview of the IPACS Benchmark with practical sessions focused on individual topics.

The new approach received glowing reviews from participants. Some 69% of respondents gave a five-star rating to the 2025 workshop series and a further 25% gave a rating of four stars. In light of this positive response, three new workshops have been planned for 2026.   

Twenty participants from 15 IOC-recognised federations took part in the first of these three workshops on 6 May. The participants had the opportunity to hear about the election-related guidance that was included in the recently published Sport Governance Benchmark & Guidelines Handbook, a tool that presents the broader IPACS Benchmark in a simplified and accessible format. They also revisited specific recommendations of the IPACS Benchmark related to elections, a broad overview of which was included in the 2024 webinar on the democracy dimension of the Benchmark.

The workshop featured a representative from the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) as a co-presenter, given the organisation’s wealth of experience with IF elections. Junjie Li, Head of Institutional Affairs and Communications at ASOIF, shared ASOIF’s suggested components of electoral rules and processes for International Federations, good practices and case study examples. Throughout his presentation, he engaged participants in thought-provoking discussions. After his presentation, the participants discussed challenging theoretical scenarios, providing their input on possible solutions.

Following the workshop, Mr Li shared his takeaways from the experience:

“This workshop provided a valuable opportunity to present ASOIF’s suggested components of electoral rules and processes to a new audience of International Federations. Adapting governance guidance to organisations with very different structures, sizes and levels of experience is always a challenge, but together with our IOC colleagues we were able to tailor the discussions to the specific needs of the participating federations.”

Turning to his engagement with the audience, he added “I was particularly impressed by the willingness of participants to engage openly, share their experiences and contribute thoughtful perspectives on complex governance questions.”

The participants themselves shared similarly positive views, particularly in relation to the workshop’s interactive elements. Every aspect of the workshop was rated as either “somewhat helpful” or “very helpful” by the participants who provided feedback, while 100% of respondents rated the theoretical scenarios segment as “very helpful”.

One participant, Carol Hackett of World Squash, shared her own impressions of the workshop:

“I truly valued the detailed guidance provided by the IOC and ASOIF presenters. Their advice was both practical and highly relevant for federations of our scale.

It is encouraging to see the extensive resources developed by IPACS and other bodies to support our governance goals. I particularly appreciated the opportunity to hear from peer federations and to share our own experiences. Thank you for organising such an insightful session.”

Two more workshops will be held this year. The next workshop on 29 June will cover reports and investigations, and will be followed by a 7 December workshop on procurement.