Category Archives: Uncategorised

Doctoral Candidate 11 (DC 11) Name: Jonas Christensen
Email Address: [email protected]

Personal Information: Jonas Christensen offers a unique perspective to the field of parasports, rooted in substantial practical experience coupled with a master’s degree in Humanities and Social Sport Sciences from the University of Copenhagen.

Having served as an elite consultant for the National Paralympic Committee of Denmark and as national coach in Goalball, Jonas has been directly involved in the day-to-day realities and challenges faced by athletes and organizations in parasports. This direct involvement has provided him with invaluable insights into the practical application of classification systems and the importance of ethical considerations in competitive environments.

Jonas’s work is characterized by a deep commitment to bridging the gap between theory and practice. His approach is informed by first-hand experiences, allowing him to contribute meaningfully to discussions on fairness and inclusion in sports, and by leveraging his practical experiences in Paralympic sport and various high-performance environments, he aims to enrich the academic and professional discourse on classification, fairness, and inclusion in sport.

Home University: NSSS

Planned Secondments:
(1) Host University: KU Leuven
(2) Industrial Partner: (TBA)

Supervisors: Prof Dr Sigmund Loland, Prof Dr Yves Vanlandewyck, Prof Dr Mike McNamee, KUL

Project Description: The project will develop a disability-specific ethical framework to satisfy the balance that must be struck between fairness and equality of opportunity alongside pragmatic measures to structure competition in dynamic wheelchair sports (basketball, Rugby, and Tennis).

Doctoral Candidate 12 (DC 12) Name: Laima Kirtovska
Email Address: [email protected]

Personal Information: Laima has Bachelor’s degree in Sports Sciences in Latvian Academy of Sport Education and an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s degree in Sport Ethics and Integrity (MAiSI). She also holds an active UEFA-B coaching license.

In addition to her academic education she has more than 10 years experience of working in football industry. During these years she has held a multitude of diverse roles, including volunteering, serving as a team liaison officer, assisting head coach in youth football teams and being responsible of organizational matters in the women’s national football team. Additionally, she has acted as the head coach for various girls’ club football teams, worked as a TV reporter and organized numerous football events.

After graduating from MAiSI, as an independent sport ethics and integrity consultant she has been providing seminars and webinars on sport parenting and sport parent education.

During her professional career Laima has also managed to work in a variety of education institutions, starting from preschool, middle and high school and all the way up to the university. Her research interests are closely related to education and prevention part of sport ethics and integrity field.

Home University: SWAN

Planned Secondments:
(1) Host University: JGU
(2) Industrial Partner: UEFA

Supervisors: Prof Dr Mike McNamee, SWAN; Prof Dr Mathias Schubert, JGU

Project Description: The project will identify the critical sports integrity stakeholders within football and model the optimal distribution of responsibilities and cooperation between those stakeholders when it comes to education and prevention. It will identify and analyse the strategies implemented and tools used to raise awareness among various football populations that can be targeted to fix matches and become involved in such corruption schemes.  It will develop a model of stakeholder’s obligations regarding detection and reporting, and how to cope with related information.

Doctoral Candidate 13 (DC 13) Name: Brianna Walsh
Email Address: [email protected]

Personal Information: Brianna has an undergraduate degree in English Literature. Before studying law at the University of Alberta, she worked in the energy industry as an administrative assistant and technical writer. Since 2021, she has worked as a criminal lawyer. Brianna has been both an athlete and youth coach in volleyball and rowing.

Home University: SWAN

Planned Secondments:
(1) Host University: JGU
(2) Industrial Partner: FIFA

Supervisors: Prof Dr Andrew Bloodworth, SWAN; Prof Dr Julia Heydenreich, JGU

Project Description: The project will analyse how WADA’s 2021 International Standard for Education (ISE) is implemented among National Football Federations. By doing so, it will enable us to better understand the challenges and obstacles facing anti-doping organisations in developing this aspect of anti-doping policy.

Doctoral Candidate 14 (DC 14) Name: Anna Semonova
Email Address: [email protected]

Personal Information: Anna obtained a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration with a specialisation in Sports Marketing & Management. Following that, she completed a Joint Master Degree in Sports Ethics and Integrity (MAiSI) in 2022, focusing her master dissertation on athletes’ representation within international sport federations. Athletes’ rights constitute her primary area of research interests.

Home University: SWAN

Planned Secondments:
(1) Host University: NSSS
(2) Industrial Partner: WADA

Supervisors: Prof Dr Camilla Knight, SWAN; Prof Dr Lone Friis Thing, NSSS

Project Description: The project will explore the personal, relational, organisational, and cultural factors that influence an individual’s vulnerability to engaging in, or being engaged in, behaviours that threaten the integrity of sport.

 

Doctoral Candidate 15 (DC 15) Name: Salvador Jr Reyes
Email Address: [email protected]

Personal Information: Salvador has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from the Philippines and a Master’s Degree in Sport Management from South Korea. He is an IT Consultant and he was a member of the Philippine National Judo Team and a former competitor in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He co-founded a sports news website that mainly covers collegiate and Filipino sports.

He is an instructor on leave for Sport Management and Judo at a university in the Philippines and has also served as an IT Consultant for different government agencies in the Philippines from 2019-2022.

His research interest is in esports as a sport and he is currently working on the adoption of forensic science discipline to the emerging concept of edoping in esports.

Home University: UNIL

Planned Secondments:
(1) Host University: KU Leuven
(2) Industrial Partner: IOC

Supervisors: Prof Thomas Souvignet, UNIL; Prof Letizia Paoli, KUL

Project Description: The objective of this project is to investigate the realm of fraud in esports by applying forensic practices associated established in traditional anti-doping, to edoping (enhancement of gaming performance through illicit digital means), and to propose strategies for adapting anti-doping forensic practices to combat the emerging challenge of anti-edoping.

 

Doctoral Candidate 16 (DC 16) Name: Nita Gjikolli
Email Address: [email protected]

Personal Information: Nita Gjikolli, is a Sport Integrity Consultant, with extensive experience in sport safeguarding and anti-doping.

Abiding by her core beliefs of integrity and respect, she has graduated with distinction from the prestigious Erasmus Masters in Sport Ethics and Integrity (MAiSI), has been certified as a Safeguarding Officer in Sport from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and has completed the US Department of State “Empower Women through Sports” program where she teamed up with the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA).

Having worked with various stakeholders, from the Biathlon Integrity Unit (BIU) in Salzburg/Austria, to national bodies like the Kosovo Olympic Committee, Kosovo Anti-Doping Agency, and Kosovo’s Ministry of Sport, Nita’s commitment to sports integrity spans broad.

Her passion for the field has taken her to seven countries where she lived, studied, and worked, forging connections with leaders and educators in sports from around the world.

She is currently based in Lausanne/Switzerland where she is pursuing her joint PhD on Prevention and Management of Abuse and Harassment in Sport, partnering with the IOC.

Home University: UNIL

Planned Secondments:
(1) Host University: SWAN
(2) Industrial Partner: IOC

Supervisors: Prof Dr Lucie Schoch, UNIL; Prof Dr Camilla Knight, SWAN

Project Description: Identify best practices in safeguarding policies and propose innovative recommendations towards sports organisations to better prevent and manage harassment and abuse from occurring in sport.

Doctoral Candidate 17 (DC 17) Name: Harry Grimes
Email Address: [email protected]

Personal Information: After studying a BSc Sport and Exercise Science degree at Swansea University, Harry discovered a passion for anti-doping and sports ethics. This led him to studying on the prestigious MAiSI program, the most rewarding experience of his life. His master’s thesis was an ethical analysis of the NFL and WADA’s anti-doping policy, through the lens of key issues such as Proportionality, Sanctions and Deterrence. This has many key overlaps with his current research, including questions such as what constitutes a legitimate, credible, and trustworthy anti-doping organisation. With a background in football and cricket, he hopes to continue working to combat and raise awareness of integrity issues in sport.

Home University: UNIL

Planned Secondments:
(1) Host University: SWAN
(2) Industrial Partner: WADA

Supervisors: Prof Dr Fabien Ohl, UNIL; Prof Dr Katrina Pritchard, SWAN; Prof Sigmund Loland, NSSS

Project Description: Understanding the elements on which trust is built and to increase trust in antidoping in improving antidoping organisations’ (ADOS) governance and policies.