Carved at the entrance to the Olympic Museum in Switzerland is a quote by Juan Antonio Samaranch that sums up the Olympic spirit: "The important thing is the athlete!" Samaranch, a veteran leader in world sport, is now the honorary president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
This motto guides the sports policies of countries that excel in major global sporting competitions. Unfortunately, this is not the case with Brazil. Our results at the Beijing Games were more modest than those achieved in the previous tournament, although the financial resources available to the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) have increased considerably.
Never before has so much public money been injected into an Olympic cycle: around R$700 million over the last four years. Brazil's best campaign in history, Athens 2004, with five gold medals, required much less: around R$280 million.
One explanation for this paradox is our Olympic Committee's growing distance from this philosophy that prioritizes the athlete over bureaucratic power. Money is essential, and public and private investment in sports must continue to grow in the country. But it is also crucial to ensure that these resources are effectively used for athlete development and training. And there must be trust in the work of sports leaders.
The recent reelection of the current COB president does nothing to increase confidence in our largest sports organization among society, investing companies, and even international sports authorities. The hasty convening of such a significant general assembly is inconsistent with the ethical principles that should guide the administration of an entity responsible for managing substantial public resources and important issues such as Brazil's bid for the 2016 Olympics.
Every election must respect the democratic spirit, and the Olympic movement should set an example, drawing inspiration from Ancient Greece, the birthplace of democracy. Although only the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) has protested the shady nature of the COB's reelection process, all other Brazilian sports entities are losing out. The damage to our Olympic Committee's reputation undermines the trust of all those involved in the cause of sport.
Furthermore, the Brazilian Olympic movement needs to be reinvigorated so that changes can be introduced that make decision-making more democratic, reduce administrative costs for organizations, and ensure that financial resources effectively reach athletes. \ As long as public funds don't reach athletes and training organizations, there won't be the conditions for consistent sports development work.\
Today, athlete development occurs despite the COB, not through its efforts. The Flamengo Regatta Club, for example, invests its own resources in the development of Olympic athletes and receives no public funding from the COB. Flamengo has a tradition of sports development in various disciplines, such as gymnastics, rowing, basketball, judo, swimming, synchronized swimming, water polo, and others. We have contributed outstanding representatives to the country's Olympic delegations. At the last Pan American Games, Flamengo participated with 23 athletes, who won several medals. If it were a national team, it would rank 14th in the Games rankings.
Flamengo's efforts to develop and train these and thousands of other athletes are supported by resources from our main source of income, professional soccer. Like Flamengo, other clubs (Pinheiros - SP, Minas Tênis - MG, Sogipa - RN, etc.) also invest their own resources in their athletes, whether from soccer or other sources. In addition to not receiving the funds managed by the COB, these clubs are penalized because their athletes cannot wear sponsor brands in official competitions. This model restricts market opportunities for clubs and athletes who compete in their main competitions wearing COB uniforms, without any club or sponsor branding.
In addition to athletes and training entities, mostly clubs, it is essential to work on sports in schools, focused on the integral development of the human person, prioritizing public resources for educational sports, as established by the Constitution.
The federal government and the National Congress need to discuss this issue more broadly, with athletes, clubs, and sports administration entities. The time is now! A new Olympic cycle is beginning, and the same mistakes cannot be made. More rigorous monitoring of the management of public resources allocated to the COB is needed, and a national sports policy must be established.
At the same time, the CBF, as the only member entity of the COB General Assembly that is independent of public resources, has the responsibility to react to the authoritarianism with which the Olympic movement was treated in this last election and participate in the discussion on the application of resources destined for the training of Olympic athletes, so that multi-sport clubs can continue to participate in other modalities without burdening their main sport.
MARCIO BRAGA is president of Flamengo.