Harri Syväsalmi Joins Task Force 03/06/2016

Six weeks ago, WDSF President Lukas Hinder made his intention to create a Presidential Task Force to combat competition manipulation in DanceSport known. He did so in a letter to his colleagues on the Presidium and in an official release that was widely circulated.

Now the WDSF President makes a first announcement regarding the composition of this task force. “Much thought has gone into defining different profiles for task force members capable to each make diverse but relevant contributions that in their sum can bring us forward,” Hinder explains. “Then it is a matter of finding the best person possible for every profile.

Today we have certainly found the best man for what is bound to be one of the key areas in the task force’s work: Mr Harri Syväsalmi from Finland!

With Mr Harri Syväsalmi we have been able to get an expert with a truly distinguished background in promoting ethical conduct in sports to join our team.

Ethical issues are at the centre of our problem and Mr Syväsalmi’s advice in this area will prove invaluable,” Hinder concluded.

Mr Syväsalmi served as the first Director General of the World Ant-Doping Agency (WADA) through 2003, after he had previously played an instrumental role in the development of the WADA statutes as a representative of the Finnish government. He was chairman of the Working Group for the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions and he is currently chairing the European Union Expert Group on Match-Fixing.

In his current capacity as Secretary General of the Finnish Centre for Integrity in Sports (FINCIS) he is setting up a governmental hybrid that is unique in the world in as far as its mission is concerned. FINCIS is chiefly responsible for advocating and enforcing ethical principles in Finnish sport, carrying out anti-doping activities, preventing match-fixing and promoting spectator safety and security, among other things.

Upon his recent appointment to the Secretary General position at FINCIS, Mr Syväsalmi made the following statement:

It is the duty of us all to actively defend and respect the most important of our core values: the integrity of sport. If we accept undesirable phenomena in sport, we will destroy its very foundations.”