The third monthly Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee (SAOC) online conference on Wednesday took as its theme “Creating a Sporting Ecosystem.”
The conference was organized by SAOC under the patronage of its president Prince Abdul Aziz bin Turki Al-Faisal as part of its commitment to develop sports in the Kingdom. It was led by Dr. Craig Duncan, a human performance strategist, and Shayamal Vallabhjee, a high-performance coach. There were more than 60 participants, including SAOC employees and Saudi Arabian National Federation officials.
SAOC Vice President Prince Fahad ibn Jalawi welcomed the attendees on behalf of Prince Abdul Aziz.
“The SAOC monthly conferences are a series of sessions we host to ensure full coordination among sport representatives in the Kingdom,” Prince Fahad said.
The conference is an example of SAOC’s innovative approach to developing Saudi Arabia’s sports performance and science expertise — ensuring key learnings and best practices are taught throughout the nation’s sports movement.
Through knowledge-sharing and data-driven insights, SAOC is hosting these conferences to provide elite regional athletes with the strongest opportunities to succeed, and enhance the sporting culture across the country.
The conference participants benefited from the knowledge of local and international experts. The discussion looked at how technology can be used to see the level of fatigue among athletes who over-train, based on testing their different variables — such as their sleep levels and heartbeat.
It also focused on the use of technology to monitor athletes’ performance. The panelists agreed that to achieve this we need to strengthen athletes’ trust and to show them the possible benefits. These include being able to optimize their performance through the effective use of data.
SAOC held conferences in June and July with the themes “The Role of Governance in Sports Organizations” and “Managing National Federations.” Speakers included Jerome Poivey, head of Institutional Relations and Governance at International Olympic Committee (IOC); Kelly Fairweather, ITF chief operating officer; Florian Pasquet, FIBA national federations and sport senior associate, and Dr. Donald Rukare, advocate for the High Court of Uganda and secretary-general of Uganda Olympic Committee.
