The “strong ethical value of Fair Play which we have in orienteering” is the unquestionable cornerstone of our sport. It was also a key topic on the General Assembly in 2020 with a resolution to clarify norms and rules. The IOF has started to work on a Fair Play education tool for the uninitiated.
But what could be a better place to demonstrate Fair Play in orienteering for the wider audience than a World Cup in Sweden on the IOF web-TV?
The highly knowledgable speakers could explain in detail how elite orienteering works, what runners may think and what they may need to do to deliver good results. Young athletes and runners from developing orienteering nations got the proper practical demonstration of Fair Play.
“those two working together can do really good orienteering”
“all he has to do is trying to lock eyes on the back of the Swede”
Anybody who worked on culture change projects knows that nothing works better than highly visible people demonstrating the expected norms while commentators reinforcing them. The IOF web-TV is a most helpful way to educate young athletes and new orienteering nations about the strong ethical value of Fair Play in our sport.
The only possible improvement that I could suggest is stressing that orienteering is a religion, and as in every religion, one should learn both the commandments and their applicability. It can get awkward if you do not know who are the ones who can pick and choose which commandment to keep and which one to break without consequences while being unhappy if others do not keep all of them.
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Anybody interested in broader context, may want to check the IOF web-TV of the Long competition:
1:10:35 to 1:11:20 – AB caught up with LR after 25 minutes:
“those two working together can do really good orienteering”
3:31:30 to 3:33:25 – GB caught up with DH and developed a longer gap
“DH is gonna’ really work hard now to try to stay on the back of GB”
“at this point all DH has got to do is trying to lock eyes on the back of the Swede, trying to make that ground back whilst we have this good visibility“
IOF Reflections 
Well, about fair play… according to Strava Milos Nykodym did a nice hike through the embargoed area for relay and middle on August 4 (before the world cup).
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A quick check suggests that his hiking route was NOT embargoed in B#3, but got under embargo in B#4. B#4 with a new map of embargoed areas was published on 7 August according to the event website. So he could not possibly adhere to it 3 days before, methinks.
https://www.idrefjallveckan.se/bulletin-4-and-new-map-of-embargoed-areas/
It is another question how fair it is to modify embargoed areas in this manner a couple of days before the event. But that is for the organisers.
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