Socga president Gopal happy with impact of advance sports management graduates |19 February 2020

Socga president Antonio Gopal

Seychelles has 33 graduates of the advance sports management course, an initiative of the International Olympic Committee, and Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association president Antonio Gopal is happy of the impact they are making.

Former International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Juan Antonio Samaranch, who shaped world sports simply through excellent management skills, making the IOC not only a big and successful organisation, but also a respectable organisation capable of creating resources to help all its members, started the programme.

In Seychelles, the course was launched by Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (Socga) president Gopal in April 2010 with the aim of getting sports administrators to acquire much-needed experience.

Ten years later, the programme is still going strong as those who volunteer to follow it cover topics like organisation of an Olympic sports organisation, managing strategically, managing human resources, managing finance, and managing marketing.

Speaking to Sports NATION, Socga president Gopal said “this educational project is offered all over the world by the International Olympic Committee to train personnel in sports management and we are glad that sports organisations in Seychelles have responded favourably to it”.

Socga has since day one been organising the course with the help of the National Sports Council (NSC).

Mr Gopal, who was the course director of the fourth cohort alongside Bernard Denis, added: “And by doing so we are seeing progress in the fields of management not only in sports but in management in general in Seychelles i.e. wherever these students are working. As you know management is management whether it is in sport or not. We take this opportunity to congratulate all the graduates and thank the course directors, facilitators and the juries for giving their time and being faithful over the years to assist us in running the course. We would also like to thank the NSC for its assistance throughout the course.”

The advanced sports management course offers those who take part the opportunity to reach the diploma in sports management – a standard between the Masters degree (Memos) and certificate in sports management offered by the IOC and supervised by the Olympic Solidarity.

To help them in their studies, all delegates receive a manual developed by the Olympic Solidarity in collaboration with Memos (Executive Masters in Sports Organisations Management).

During the course, the students follow six modules, exploring different topics and situations as well as look for solutions and answers to issues and problems based on the theories and concepts they have understood.

The methods by which the theories and concepts are dissected come in three main strategies: presentations by the course director and course facilitators; extensive reading by the students; and studying case studies and students developing own case studies to be presented to fellow students.

No formal examination is carried out but the students have to work on six case studies – two of which should have been extensively developed and finally one is chosen by the student and the course director to be sent to the Olympic Solidarity in Lausanne for final evaluation.

The 33 Seychellois holders of the advanced sports management diploma are:

Class of 2012: Monique Athanase, Gretel Nenesse and Philip Albert

Class of 2013: Paul Nioze, Charlie Ng Ping Cheun, Priscilla Kinloch, Stephanie Duval, Delta Ward-Horner, Tracey Hetimier, Doreen Auguste, Hillary Nourrice, Paddy King, Antoinette Esparon, Anna Payet and Yvonne Legaie

Class of 2015: Liana Adrienne, Farah Aziz, Angela Esparon, John Marie, Floyd Nalletamby, Percy Vidot and Sarka Vikorovia

Class of 2020: Gordon Boodna, Nadine Finesse, Alia Gamatis, Chantal Hoffman, Ruudy Joseph, Mervin Joubert, Francis Labrosse, Vanessa Narty, Dominic Pillay, Soutane Robert and Monica Samson

Sports NATION congratulates the graduates on their achievements and look forward to working with them in the future.

Gerard Govinden