The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced this week that two individuals and one federation have been awarded the Paris 2024 Fair Play Awards for demonstrating friendship, sportsmanship, and solidarity.
The recipients, Norway’s decathlete Sander Skotheim, Spain’s Antonio Rojas, and the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), received the awards at the Olympic Museum on Sunday.
Skotheim was selected by the International Fair Play Committee, an organisation recognised by the IOC, for his perseverance in the men’s decathlon. Despite failing to clear a height and register a score in the pole vault, he continued to compete.
Rojas, who served as the DJ at the Eiffel Tower Stadium during the 2024 Paris Olympics, played John Lennon’s classic song “Imagine” to help defuse a disagreement between Brazil’s Ana Patricia Silva Ramos and Canada’s Brandie Wilkerson during the women’s beach volleyball final.
The DOSB and its national rowing federation provided one of their boats to single-sculls rower Yauheni Zalaty, an Individual Neutral Athlete from Belarus, after his own boat was delayed in customs. Zalaty ultimately secured a silver medal, while Germany’s Oliver Zeidler claimed the gold.
This year’s Fair Play Awards were presented at a ceremony held at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne on October 12, the opening day of Olympic Week, a yearly event where over 8,000 children get the chance to discover free and exciting activities combining sport and culture.
Created and chosen by the International Fair Play Committee (CIFP), an organisation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the awards acknowledge powerful acts of solidarity and fair play at the Olympic Games – both on and off the field of play.
