Here, CIFP President Jeno Kamuti and CIFP Secretary General, Sunil Sabharwal, expand on the work of the organization in a quick Q&A with the FIE:
What is the role and mission of the committee?
"CIFP was created in 1963 with a simple mission of fostering the ideals of fair play. We would interpret this to mean that our objective should not be winning at all costs, but to compete in a spirit that is to be respectful of our opponents. Respecting the rules, avoiding cheating of any kind – such as taking performance enhance drugs or colluding - are essential to sport. In fact, one can say that there is no sport without fair play."
What are CIFP’s specific plans for this year?
"We possibly have the busiest year ever ahead of us. We had a full team at the Lillehammer Youth Olympic Games as part of the IOC’s Learn and Share Program. CIFP is one of very few external organizations invited to participate in this program. I must mention here our long-standing partnership with the Global Sports Foundation whose support has been invaluable in terms of enabling our participation at the YOGs. For Lillehammer, we prepared a full set of interactive games, educational programs for the young athletes to educate themselves and have fun with. Then, we are gearing up with our Rio2016 Awards program, where the first time ever, we will let the public vote – via all kinds of social media methods – on any fair play act they see at an Olympic qualifier event or at the Games themselves. We are very curious to see what kinds of nominations we will get and are very excited about receiving many many submissions from fans all around the world."
How do you expect to inspire and influence the young athletes?
"Our participation at the YOGs is key to this effort where we reach practically all the countries in the world. Each team has a YOG Ambassador, a young impressive sportsman or woman, whose roles is to take the messages they learn and share at the event, back to their home countries. We will heavily rely on these fine YOG Ambassadors as multipliers of our messages. In addition to this, we have a partnership with Classroom Champions, who are in dozens of schools reaching thousands of children with fair play stories. We hope to multiply these relationships over the years."
Why it is that former fencers are among the current leaders of CIFP?
"This is an interesting question, and let me just point out that it has not always been fencers that ran CIFP. However, one thing we should remember that in fencing from a very early age we grow up to treat our opponent with respect, and to be fair: we acknowledge touches that are scored against us, we try to stop our fencing when the other fencer loses his or her balance, or if there is a dangerous situation developing. Fencers grow up with these experiences, so we understand what “fair play” means from the very beginning."
How does CIFP see cooperation with IF’s in general and FIE in specific?
"CIFP has had a 50-plus-year tradition in hosting an annual award event where it presents a Trophy for each of an Act, Promotion and Career of Fair Play. Under the initiative of former IOC President Jacques Rogge, we also launched a Youth trophy. Furthermore, we have started going to selective world championships, such as IAAF, FINA, and so on, to present special fair play awards – a program we intend to continue to develop.
I am personally very happy that with the leadership of President Usmanov, the FIE has approved the establishment of a Fair Play Council at its last Congress in China. Now that this has been approved I look forward to discussing with the FIE how we can make it a strong working relationship within our organizations."