Prevention of Competition manipulation

One of the top priorities for the IBSF is to protect clean athletes and keeping sport fair. To protect athletes effectively and ensure fair competition, the IBSF with the help of the International Olympic Comittee (IOC), has developed processes for raising awarness, monitoring, reporting and investigating any occurrences of competition manipulation in Bobsleigh and Skeleton sports. 


Doping is cheating to win a competition and/or have an unfair advantage over other competitors, while competition manipulation is usually committed to deliberately lose a competition or parts of it. It often involves not only the athlete, but also the entourage, for example the coach or medical staff.

Competition manipulation is when an athlete or official cheats to remove the unpredictability of a competition. They may cheat to lose a competition or part of it, which is entirely against the sporting spirit.

Key issues related to competition manipulation include:

• A betting prohibition means that accredited persons are not allowed to bet on their competitions, disciplines or other competitions and disciplines in the Event in which it takes part.
   
• Inside information is all exclusive information (tactics, injuries, etc.) to which athletes, officials and support personnel have access. This information must be kept private, because it can be used for fraudulent betting purposes. Special care is needed for the social media where a lot of information can be posted and spread quickly to anyone. 
   
• Match-fixing is normally referred to as competition manipulation related to betting. It means any improper alteration of a competition to win money through sports betting or to ensure that a bettor (who may have offered a bribe) wins their bet. Betting-related competition manipulation can affect the result of a competition, but also other minor and marginal occurrences during its course, which is often referred to as spot-fixing.
   
• Tanking (deliberately losing) is to gain undue sporting advantage in a competition, for instance, when athletes lose an event on purpose to play easier opponents in the next phases of the competition.

 

The IBSF cooperates closely with the IOC´s integrity unit. Further information and useful tools can be found here:

IOC Prevention of Competition Manipulation

Olympic Movement Code on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions 

Olympic Movement Strategy

VIDEOS
What is competition manipulation?

Why people do it?

REPORTS
2018/19 – no cases
2019/20 – no cases
2020/21 – no cases
2021/22 – no cases

REPORTING
Anyone who encounters or suspects manipulation at any time is responsible and has the obligation to speak out. 
International Olympic Committee’s Integrity and Compliance Hotline
Confidentiality guaranteed.

You may also contact the IBSF Vice-President of Legal Affairs, Martins Dambergs: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.