09 Nov 2021

Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) is committed to safeguarding of sport by protecting clean athletes and competitions as stated in the Olympic Agenda 2020+5.

BNOC acting chief executive officer, Wedu Motswetla, said this when briefing the general assembly on Saturday.

Motswetla said BNOC was committed to fighting manipulation of competitions by adhering to the standard set out in the Olympic Movement (OM) code on

Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions.

Furthermore, she said rules had been developed to assist BNOC in implementing rules complaint with the Olympic Movement code on Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions (OM Code PMC).

She said due to the complex nature to this threat, the BNOC recognised that it could not tackle the threat alone, hence need for cooperation from federations.

Motswetla called upon all national federations to establish rules requiring each participant in a competition to agree to be bound by rules in conformity with the OM Code PMC.

She said her organisation’s responsibility was to ensure that all member organisations implemented regulations in compliance with the OM Code PMC, adding that rules could help in implanting prevention of the manipulation of competitions

About doping, Motswetla said over the four year period, Botswana had only reported two adverse analytical findings.
She said a total of 40 tests were conducted and 19 were in-competition while 21 were out of competition, adding that the tests were conducted across five individual sports.

Testing, she said, was mainly centred on athletes who had qualified for the Olympic Games including those attempting to attain qualification.

Motswetla said the process of establishing a National Anti-Doping Organisations (NADO) was progressing well.

She said the anti-doping officer initially based at the BNOC had since relocated to the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development and therefore plans to hire a coordinator were also at an advanced stage. ENDS