In re­cent weeks, I have been laid low. Es­sen­tial­ly con­fined to rest while med­ical pro­to­cols as­sess and de­ter­mine the ex­act na­ture of the spe­cif­ic prob­lem and what the next steps are. As such, I have been tem­porar­i­ly off the grid, in­vis­i­ble, miss­ing in ac­tion (MIA).

One good thing, used ap­pro­pri­ate­ly, MIA al­lows you to find clar­i­ty with­out the noise. You learn who was there be­cause of what they could gain or ben­e­fit from through your vis­i­bil­i­ty. And then there are those who are hap­py be­cause your si­lence al­lows them to con­tin­ue to hide.

Re­gard­less, tak­ing it all in, you gain re­newed per­spec­tive. The head­lines about the dif­fer­ent is­sues in sport con­tin­ue. Feel­ing dis­ap­point­ment and ask­ing why this is tol­er­at­ed? Why peo­ple are able to get away with these things makes lit­tle to no sense.

The head­lines ought to of­fend any­one with any con­cept and con­text of what ethics, in­tegri­ty and good gov­er­nance in sport ought to look like. That’s a prob­lem- every­one wants a mouth­piece so that they can hide be­hind si­lence. No one wants to pay the price and face the mu­sic. No one wants to face the wrath. Ask peo­ple who talk and lament in the shad­ows- what are you afraid of?

If what is hap­pen­ing so of­fends you, why don’t you say some­thing? The an­swer that comes is sim­ple: speak up, and you will be de­stroyed. They will come af­ter your char­ac­ter, your so­cial stand­ing, even your ca­reer and fam­i­ly. I can’t take the pub­lic­i­ty. It’s too risky. If you are still read­ing - I want you to think about that. We have a cul­ture where peo­ple don’t want to ad­dress is­sues be­cause it’s safer not to. How then do we change what isn’t right?

Let me be hon­est. I not on­ly hear the lament. I un­der­stand it be­cause I have had to live it. Speak up, and the in­sti­tu­tion, the sys­tem, goes in­to self-pro­tec­tion mode.

The IOC (In­ter­na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee) un­der­stands that there are is­sues with­in the Olympic Move­ment and while I may not al­ways con­cur with their me­thod­i­cal ap­proach and need to con­trol the nar­ra­tive, they do seek to course cor­rect the Olympic Move­ment ecosys­tem in their own tim­ing and man­ner.

Case in point is their (IOC) good fi­nan­cial gov­er­nance work­shops or­gan­ised in part­ner­ship with the Olympic sol­i­dar­i­ty team from the IOC Head­quar­ters in Lau­sanne, Switzer­land. The work­shops aim to en­hance fi­nan­cial re­port­ing sys­tems, in­ter­nal poli­cies, and align NOC fi­nan­cial prac­tices with IOC ex­pec­ta­tions. The work­shops are nec­es­sary.

In clos­ing to­day’s Things That Mat­ter col­umn, I leave some bul­let points that aren’t ran­dom but rel­e­vant re­minders:

- The truth isn’t com­fort­able. Not every­one ap­pre­ci­ates light. Be­ware of those who fear it. Trans­paren­cy isn’t a lux­u­ry, it’s a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. In­vite ac­count­abil­i­ty, do not hide from it.

- Build trans­paren­cy and re­pair trust and lead with truth even when truth feels heavy.

- Trans­paren­cy isn’t a one-time act; it’s a dai­ly choice. Trans­paren­cy is not a risk; it’s a re­quire­ment.

- Tell the truth, don’t “toe the line”. Choose ethics over op­tics.

- Ethics isn’t a check box; it’s the back­bone of trust: Good in­ten­tions need ac­count­abil­i­ty.

- In­tegri­ty still mat­ters.

- The truth isn’t com­fort­able.

One fi­nal note in my years in sport, some­one with whom I de­vel­oped a good re­la­tion­ship for all the right rea­sons, passed away Sun­day (Au­gust 3) morn­ing. A de­cent hu­man be­ing, ath­lete, coach and ad­min­is­tra­tor. My sin­cer­est con­do­lences to Reeza Burke’s fam­i­ly, friends and the ta­ble ten­nis fra­ter­ni­ty. Rest in eter­nal peace, Reeza. Gone too soon.