Two presidents, one room, no questions off limits: athletes put governance to the test at the Oceania Athletes Forum

HONIARA, 25 MAY 2026 (ONOC MEDIA)—Following the formal opening of the 2026 Oceania Athletes Forum in Auckland, the room quickly shifted from ceremony into conversation.  

IOC President Kirsty Coventry and ONOC President Baklai Temengil-Chilton took their seats alongside emcee Sarah Walker for a session that was equal parts fireside chat and open floor, giving nearly 40 athlete representatives from across Oceania the rare opportunity to put questions directly to the two most senior leaders in Olympic sport in the region. 

A short warm-up exchange set the mood before the floor opened to delegates. Asked to describe Oceania in three words, President Coventry offered “passionate, integrity, and respectful,” President Baklai answered with “power, intention, and more power.” Then the questions came. 

Conversations opened with both presidents asked what the hardest question was they could ask of themselves in their current roles. 

President Coventry spoke about the challenge of being the leader with full sight of an organisation while those around her may only hold part of the picture, and the responsibility of building trust across a structure where not everyone can see the same recipe but all need to move together. 

The conversation turned personal when Angel San Nicholas from the Northern Mariana Islands asked both presidents about stepping away from competition. 

President Coventry described how it was never really about the racing but about the fear of losing the community sport had built around her. A knee dislocation and pneumonia before London 2012 left the ending feeling wrong, so she returned for Rio 2016, finished on her own terms, and walked away with the closure she needed.  

President Baklai took a quieter path. She was already an administrator while still competing, the two roles running alongside each other until she simply redirected her energy. She has never entirely stopped. She still paddles. 

A Cook Islands representative raised the challenge of staying connected to diaspora athletes based in New Zealand and Australia. President Coventry’s answer was simple: technology, but used with genuine intent. Not programme updates, but real check-ins. How are you? What do you need? The simplest contact, she said, bridges the longest distances when it comes from a place of actual care. 

Climate change drew a significant exchange.  

Pacific’s disproportionate exposure to rising seas and extreme weather was raised and the President was asked what the IOC was doing to help.  

President Coventry was clear that the IOC has a role in advocacy, in holding host cities to higher environmental standards, and in working with organisations whose core focus is climate action, while being honest that direct implementation is not where the movement’s power sits. 

“In the Pacific context, this is really right in our shores and in our doorfront,” said President Baklai Temengil-Chilton, President, Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) 

President Baklai encouraged athletes to build environmental networks now, framing climate engagement as part of their career development as leaders, not a side conversation. 

The room leaned in when IOC President asked for an update on the IOC’s Fit for Future review.  

President Coventry outlined nine working groups, broad stakeholder surveys, and a process of honest reckoning with what is working and what is not. 

She was candid about the Youth Olympic Games, describing a divided movement and the decision to pause rather than continue something that was no longer meeting its original purpose. 

“We need to be brave enough to say that’s not working, we’re going to stop it, we’re going to evaluate it. That is a little bit of a new culture for us,”  said Kirsty Coventry, President, International Olympic Committee. 

She also spoke plainly about accountability, signalling an intention to attach conditions to how Olympic Solidarity funding is used, with a clear expectation that a defined proportion reaches athlete development directly. 

The final question acknowledged what was already visible in the room: two female presidents, a rarity at any level of sport governance. A delegate asked both leaders about the internal dialogue that carried them to where they are now, and who had championed them. 

President Baklai spoke of the women leaders across Oceania who consistently pushed her to raise her hand and step forward, of her husband and two daughters as her grounding, and of the strength that comes from leading with both conviction and heart. 

President Coventry spoke of a grandmother who modelled independence, a college coach who showed her how to hold everything together under pressure, and the doubters during her IOC campaign who added fuel to her determination. 

“It is important that you have people around you that keep you grounded, that know you for who you actually are,” said Kirsty Coventry, President, IOC. 

Walker closed the session with a reminder that the athlete consultation calls connected to Fit for Future, inconvenient as the time zones can be, are precisely what shapes conversations like the one the room had just shared. Show up. Ask the questions. Trust that it matters…..PACNEWS