WBSC Integrity Unit announces Global Ambassadors to support IOC Prevention of Competition Manipulation Programme
The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) is proud to introduce its five ambassadors for the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Global Ambassadors Programme for the Prevention of Competition Manipulation.
The WBSC Integrity Unit has appointed Josh McGovern (AUS), Giovanni Pantaleoni (ITA), Erika Polidori (CAN), Ayako Rokaku (JPN) and Trent Thomas (AUS) as WBSC Global Ambassadors.
Two of the five ambassadors — Pantaleoni (Men’s Baseball) and Polidori (Women’s Softball) — are Olympians, while McGovern (Men’s Softball) and Rokaku (Women's Baseball and Baseball5) currently serve as WBSC Athlete Representatives. In addition, Thomas, an active international umpire, becomes the first official to be nominated as a Global Ambassador for PMC, setting a great example for other sports federations.
The Global Ambassadors Programme for the Prevention of Competition Manipulation is composed of athlete ambassadors from all countries and sports who work hand in hand with their respective sport organisations — either International Federations (IFs) or National Olympic Committees (NOCs) — to raise awareness about competition manipulation among athletes, coaches, and officials.
Their activities may include in-person briefings, online webinars organised by the IF, running booths at events, or featuring in communication materials such as social media campaigns and websites, among others.
During the WBSC Youth Baseball5 World Cup 2025, the WBSC took the opportunity to provide educational materials on the prevention of competition manipulation to participating teams. The Code of Conduct was made available and distributed in various languages, including French, Spanish, English, Japanese, Arabic, and Traditional Chinese. Rokaku (pictured in the cover photo), one of the 10 IOC Believe in Sport Ambassadors, was present at the tournament as a WBSC Ambassador.
Through its participation in the Global Ambassadors Programme, the WBSC reaffirms its strong commitment to preventing competition manipulation, raising awareness within the baseball-softball community, and implementing robust and transparent procedures to reinforce the ideals of fair play and integrity.
The WBSC Integrity Unit continues to foster a culture of integrity within the global baseball-softball family by implementing clear and robust governance frameworks based on the principles of transparency, integrity, democracy, development, solidarity, and by maintaining effective control mechanisms and checks and balances.
WBSC reinforces commitment to sports integrity within the Olympic Movement
The WBSC continues to play a key role in the Olympic Movement’s efforts to uphold sports integrity, with Chief Operating Officer Marco Ienna participating in a series of high-level meetings held in Lausanne, Switzerland, reaffirming the organisation’s ongoing commitment to promoting integrity, transparency, and good governance across global Baseball/Softball.
On 23 October, the Advisory Board of the Olympic Movement Unit on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions (OM Unit PMC) convened in the Olympic capital as part of the lead-up to the 5th International Forum for Sports Integrity (IFSI) the following day. The Board provides support, guidance, and advice to the OM Unit PMC in its mission to help Olympic Movement stakeholders safeguard the integrity of their competitions throughout the Olympic cycle.
On the same day, the 8th Annual General Conference of the International Partnership Against Corruption in Sport (IPACS) took place at Olympic House in Lausanne, gathering over 130 participants from governments, intergovernmental organisations, sports bodies, and the broader IPACS community.
The conference saw the launch of the Sport Governance Benchmark and Guidelines Handbook, which is a new tool for sport organisations to support the implementation of the Benchmark’s 50 recommendations.
Some of the other key highlights from the conference included the enhanced cooperation between sport and criminal justice authorities; staying ahead of the curve: using AI to support sports integrity and the reference to a stronger partnership with the number of IPACS partners increasing by 43% in the past year – from 51 to 73.
On 24 October, the International Forum for Sports Integrity (IFSI) brought together 400 leaders from the Olympic Movement, governments, intergovernmental agencies, and betting authorities to further strengthen collaboration in protecting sport from corruption and manipulation.
The key outcome of the forum was the adoption of the Universal Declaration on Sports Integrity, which was unanimously endorsed during the event. The declaration outlines the responsibilities and concrete follow-up actions for the key stakeholders across four priority areas:
- promoting good governance and combating corruption in sport;
- preventing competition manipulation;
- integrity in officiating and the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI); and
- safeguarding in sport.
Addressing the forum, IOC President Kirsty Coventry, remarked how sports integrity translates to the field of play: “I know from my journey that being able to have confidence in the competitions and in the stakeholders was always really important, and this is what we all we represent in this room. We are all the people that make the different decisions in and around how athletes will be protected, and how to strengthen different protocols and codes.”
The IOC President went on to stress the power of collaboration, and underscored the shared responsibility for sports integrity across sport, governments and society, comparing it to the functioning of a spider web, which is strong and resistant only when all the threads are intact and connected: “It takes all of us in our individual capacities to come together, to work together, and to ensure that we want the same outcome, which is to strengthen the integrity of our different individual institutions."