07 August 2025 – On the occasion of Safe Sport Day, the IOC highlights some of the new measures put in place during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to protect athletes and their entourage members. Amid the spectacle of over 200 national teams vying for gold, there was another team quietly driving the success of the Games behind the scenes: the NOC Welfare Officers. In total, 154 NOC Welfare Officers worked in Paris to safeguard the physical, emotional and mental well-being of athletes and staff, playing a vital role in the delivery of the Games. Their work, often unseen, was essential to creating a safe and supportive environment, helping make the Games not only a sporting spectacle, but also a model for athlete welfare.
Since Beijing 2022, Welfare Officer accreditation is offered to staff members of participating NOCs at each Olympic Games. To qualify, Welfare Officers must either be nationally certified mental health professionals or internationally certified safeguarding practitioners.
Many of the Welfare Officers in Paris were graduates of the IOC Certification: Safeguarding Officer in Sport programme funded by Olympic Solidarity’s Olympic Values Programme. By the end of 2024, some 343 safeguarding officers from over 99 countries had officially been certified through the programme.
One graduate who went on to play an important role in Paris was Sefanaia Takape, Sports Education and Safeguarding Officer at the Nauru Olympic Committee. As a scholarship-holder for the 2021-2024 period, Takape sharpened his competencies in the prevention of and response to harassment and abuse in sport during the seven-month course, which featured seven online workshops. Separately, SafeSport workshops were held in Fiji in 2023 and in Guam in 2024.
As part of the ONOC’s shared services impetus for Paris 2024, in which the 15 Pacific Island nations under the ONOC umbrella benefitted from the communal use of expertise in different areas of the Olympic Games mission, Takape was one of three Welfare Officers tasked with overseeing the well-being of athletes and staff for the entire region in Paris.
At the Games, he interacted daily with Olympians and ONOC staff within the Athletes’ Lounge and on the sidelines of competitions. As a member of the safeguarding community of practice in Paris, he also attended numerous workshops and lectures facilitated by the IOC on topics selected to address current challenges and opportunities in safeguarding.
Takape said the most impactful moment for him during the Games was being able to prevent further online abuse of one of the athletes under his care. The IOC offered artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cyber abuse protection services for the first time at Paris 2024, flagging 2.4 million potentially abusive messages during the Games. The tool enabled safeguarding teams to provide support to affected athletes within 24 hours.
Takape added that it was highly beneficial for ONOC to have Welfare Officers from the region at the Games, noting that their presence helped bridge cultural differences, especially when addressing sensitive issues such as harassment and abuse.
“I think safeguarding is important to ONOC because Oceania athletes through their culture have an underlying issue of a culture of silence,” said Takape, underscoring a challenge experienced in other parts of the world as well. “Pacific people often view speaking up as sign of weakness, and they would be even more reluctant if the officer is from another country or cultural background.”
ONOC is pushing for more safeguarding officers from the region, so that athletes and officials feel comfortable sharing their issues of abuse and harassment. This personally motivates me, to be that hand of support for our athletes and to somehow remove that culture of silence and ensure that Oceania athletes compete at their best and have podium finishes more often at Games to come.
Sefanaia Takape
Sports Education and Safeguarding Officer at the Nauru Olympic Committee
The Welfare Officers were part of a larger suite of safeguarding initiatives in place at Paris 2024. Other measures included a mental health hotline and the first-of-its-kind Athlete365 Mind Zone, a space of tranquility within the Olympic Village where athletes could relax, disconnect and get mentally prepared for competition. A Safe Sport Zone was integrated within the MindZone as a safe space where athletes could consult trained IOC staff for safeguarding assistance and mental health support. All of these services were rated highly by the athletes and Chefs de Mission at the conclusion of the Games.
Beyond the Games, global attention on athlete welfare is also on the rise, with NOCs, International Federations and other sports organisations showing a growing commitment to safeguarding. Eighty-four NOCs now have safeguarding officers, for example, and the establishment of safeguarding hubs worldwide further underscores this expanding priority.
As the Olympic Movement looks to the future, the presence of Welfare Officers at the Olympic Games and other safeguarding initiatives are no longer just a luxury, they are essential for the protection of athletes everywhere.
