The World ParaVolley President, with the approval of the Board of Directors, convened a Special Hearing Panel in May 2024 to investigate multiple complaints received related to the behavior of an international technical official (ITO) at the 2024 WPV Dali, China Final Sitting Volleyball Qualifier for Paris 2024. Complaints received focused on an incident that occurred at the tournament’s General Technical Meeting and was described as “unacceptable behavior” in multiple complaints received.
The Special Hearing Panel conducted its investigation and returned a preliminary letter of recommendation at the Board’s virtual meeting held 13 June. After requesting additional information, the Board held a virtual Special Board Meeting on 4 July and returned the following decisions.
- By a vote of 4-3, the Board voted to allow the ITO to continue his participation at the Paris 2024 Paralympics where he had been previously nominated. There were 2 abstentions, and 2 members not present to vote.
- The ITO is not eligible to receive any award, recognition, nor any acknowledgement of achievement for a period of one year or July 2025 at minimum.
- Required safeguarding education and continuing professional competency evaluation for all ITOs is required.
- A letter of sanctioning was issued to the ITO by the WPV President outlining the Special Hearing Panel’s findings, recommendations to the WPV Board, and outcomes of the Board member deliberations. The ITO must issue formal letters of apology to all impacted persons affected by his unacceptable behavior. Furthermore, the WPV Sport Director has continued to communicate with the participating teams of the Dali tournament about the complaints and the panel’s activities.
The WPV Board thanks the members of the Special Hearing Panel, which included individuals with diverse expertise within World ParaVolley including legal consultants, athletes, coaches and technical officials. Their investigation and recommendations were well managed and important to improve the training, assignment, and compliance of all international technical officials in every category of the federation and will be implemented accordingly in the near future.
On behalf of World ParaVolley, we extend our regrets to the teams and all individuals involved, including other ITO’s and volunteers, for their negative experience in this situation.
“We must strive to improve the professionalism of our organization which is comprised largely of volunteers who may occasionally find themselves in roles or with responsibilities equal to that of a full-time staff. Adjustments will be evaluated to improve our business model in this area. Increasing effective communication and implementing more best practices on the business-side of World ParaVolley will help achieve this goal. I am thankful to the individuals, including coaches, athletes, team representatives and other ITO’s who brought forth their concerns in a formal manner so we were able to address those concerns with the help of the panel’s investigation. This is one way we can improve the situation for the future,” WPV President Lori Okimura said.
WPV SHP Statement_17072024
