This week marked the end of this years’ first sports administration training organised by the National Olympic Committee of Lithuania (LNOC). Two dozen of sports administrators improved their knowledge and skills during the training organised in cooperation with the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Olympic Solidarity.
“The LNOC’s sports administration training has already become a quality benchmark, we receive enquiries about this course as early as the beginning of the year and there are so many applicants that we have to make a selection. This is, of course, gratifying.
The success of federations, clubs or other organisations and the development of sport in general depends to a large extent on sports administrators. It is therefore important for us, as the National Olympic Committee, to contribute to the development and competence of administrators.
We always want to stress to the participants before the training that they receive tools during the course, but it is up to them how they will use them,” Agnė Vanagienė, Deputy Director for Olympic Sport at the LNOC, said.
She is the only one in Lithuania certified by the IOC to organise this training.
During the three days of intensive training based on theory and practice, participants worked with experienced trainers on the topics of time management, communication, personal branding and social media.
The training was delivered by business consultant Lauras Balaiša and marketing and personal branding expert Dominyka Venciūtė.
“I really enjoyed the training. I found the topic of communication particularly relevant for me, and I really learnt a lot from the practical tasks, which made me realise how differently we understand the same words and how important it is to define concepts so that we understand them in the same way and leave no room for interpretation.
I am glad that we performed the activities in groups. This gave us the opportunity not only to learn from the trainers but also to share our own experience. I really appreciate the contacts we made and the opportunity to consider certain problems and issues from a different perspective,” Olympic pentathlete Ieva Serapinaitė said, who also works in social media marketing.
Dominyka Venciūtė, Ieva Serapinaitė and Agnė Vanagienė (photo by Vytautas Dranginis).
Evelina Budėnaitė, a communications specialist at Vilnius Basketball School, echoed the Olympian.
“Our group of twenty participants was very diverse: heads of sports schools and clubs, representatives of sports federations, communicators. We are all active people, and when we got together in one circle, we realised that we all face the same problems. It was very useful not only to share experience, but also to look at the same challenge from a different perspective. I hope that these connections will lead to new projects in the future,” she said.
She stressed that one of the most important skills in both sports communication and management is time planning.
“Anyone who works with sport knows that time is very scarce. The trainer was very helpful in this respect: we learnt how to prioritise, how to calculate our working hours so that they are productive, how to combine our tasks,” she said.
The participants also learnt about LNOC activities, the work at the Olympic Games and the opportunities offered by the IOC’s Athlete 365 programme.
“I had felt that my inner fire for sports was dimming, but what my take-away from this training is inspiration and the desire to try again to come up with something new and to implement change. It was very meaningful and useful and I will definitely try to attend the advanced training if I manage to earn a place there,” Evelina Budėnaitė said.
Dominyka Venciūtė, Evelina Budėnaitė and Agnė Vanagienė (photo by Vytautas Dranginis).
Together with the IOC Olympic Solidarity, the LNOC organises three free training courses on sports administration a year. At the moment, training for coaches is underway, while the LNOC will invite experienced practitioners and senior managers to an advanced training course in August.