GUYANESE Olympian Chelsea Edghill represented Guyana over the past week at the International Athletes’ Forum in Switzerland.

The event, which concluded on Thursday, was organised by International Olympic committee Athletes’ Commission and Guyana was represented at the event by Olympian and chair of Guyana Athletes Commission Edghill.

The International Athletes’ Forum is held over three days every two years, bringing together more than 350 athletes to discuss in person the issues that are most important to athletes.

The mission of the forum is to give athlete representatives from each international federation, National Olympic committee and Continental Association and Organising Committee a physical platform so that they can exchange ideas and take solutions back to their respective athlete communities.

One of the key mandates of the event is to upskill athlete representatives and inspire them with best practices and new ideas to take home.

Edghill said, it was very informative, adding, “‘The goal of the forum is to one give us the athletes commission an update as to what has been happening at the international level of the IOC Athletes Commission and then to show us new things they would have implemented that will benefit us and educate us on our rights, the different things that are available to us and the resources available to us and showing us ways how we can apply for these grants and gain access to these resources.”

The former national champion says her concentration was on finding new ways to support local athletes.

“The focus of my participation at the international athlete’s forum was to gain perspective on different things that are happening at other athletes commission in terms of their best practices and the things we can implement in Guyana and also to gain new ideas on how best we can represent our athletes and the thing we can do to help them achieve their true potential and advocate for the things they want and to keep their needs at the forefront of what is it we do as a commission.”

Apart from the general sessions attended by all participants, representatives had the chance to attend sessions on Anti-doping, Mental health and athlete well-being, prevention of competition manipulation, Social media workshop and athletes commission administration.

Special guest at this year’s forum were Tennis legend Rafael Nadal and two-time Olympic champion and 22-time Grand Slam winner and NBA champions Pau Gasol.

The first IOC International Athletes’ Forum was held in 2002.