Free Speech for Olympic Athletes – Guest Lecture by Richard Pound

The Canadian lawyer Richard Pound has played a vital role in shaping the profile of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), today's Olympic Movement and Olympic Games for 44 years. He was IOC Vice-President and member of the Executive Committee for several years. In addition, Mr. Pound was the founding President of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

At the invitation of the Olympic Studies Center, Mr. Pound delivered an online lecture on Free Speech for Olympic Athletes for students of the M.A. International Sport Development and Politics on 2^nd of February 2023. The guest lecture was joined online by students and alumni of the M.A. Olympic Studies as well as by international academic guests, among them IOA Honorary Dean Prof. Konstantinos Georgiadis and Prof. Nelson Schneider Todt (PUCRS, Brazil).

Mr. Pound explained the historical development and current challenges of the rule 50 of the Olympic Charta and the IOC´s policy on athletes´ political expressions, based on the IOC´s internationalist perspective. His lecture was followed by an enriching discussion in which he further elaborated on the IOC's position on several current challenges.