In the lead up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games, the Fiji Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee (FASANOC) hosted a workshop for National Federations (NFs) last Saturday. CEO Vanessa Kilner confirmed the event was a vital launchpad to realign all sports towards FASANOC’s Strategic Plan culminating in the Olympic year.
Under the theme “Mindset to Medal: Preparing Champions for B2032,” the workshop emphasized creating a seamless, long-term athlete development pathway. This pathway stretches from the upcoming 2026 Commonwealth Games right through to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games, acknowledging the varying multi-sport event cycles different sports participate in.
Kilner outlined the workshop’s core objectives:
• Consolidated National Target: Establishing a clear, shared national sporting target to foster mutual accountability among all federations and FASANOC.
• Challenge & Solution Mapping: Identifying critical hurdles facing Fiji’s sports and collaboratively brainstorming solutions, recognizing some challenges require broader stakeholder collaboration beyond sport.
• Federation Ownership: Empowering NFs to take full ownership of their sport-specific pathways, with FASANOC committing to fill gaps, build capacity and provide targeted support.
A significant focus was instilling a culture of evidence-based planning and understanding using past performance as a foundation to set future targets.
• Past performances over the last 4-5 years.
• Initial goals for the next 7 years leading to 2032. “This pre-work was revealing,” Kilner noted. “It showed us where each NF stands in terms of data collection, understanding their data and crucially, their ability to use that data strategically for future planning.” Personal goal-setting sessions reinforced the importance of long-term, data-informed targets, with group work designed to challenge thinking and foster peer support.
Participants were introduced to a ‘toolkit’ designed to guide NFs in:
• Tracking and monitoring performance.
• Managing athletes, coaches, administration and governance.
A subsection of this toolkit was used in group exercises, facilitating peer learning. The workshop also stressed the essential building blocks of success: the need for robust grassroots programs feeding into development and elite levels, outlining the necessary elements at each stage for progression.
A dedicated session encouraged NFs to openly share challenges – both internal (within the sport) and external (requiring wider partnerships) – and begin developing solution frameworks. This fostered a spirit of collective problem-solving essential for systemic improvement.
Kilner confirmed the workshop is the beginning of a series of workshops that will leader into a specific Brisbane 2032 workshop and roadmap.
NFs now have two weeks to submit further data, incorporating their entire athlete pathway projections from now through 2032, including all major Games in between. This data will crystallize into formal National Targets.
The new FASANOC Executive Board was present to work with the various National Federations. Talemo Waqa of Kiliati Enterprise facilitated the sessions with Fiji Rugby Union’s General Manager High Performance, Nacanieli Cawanibuka serving as a guest speaker.
By mandating data-driven planning, fostering federation ownership, providing practical tools and building a collaborative framework to tackle challenges, FASANOC is laying the essential groundwork in this transformational approach.
The goal is clear – to create a sustainable, high-performance ecosystem capable of propelling Team Fiji to new heights by 2032 and inspiring the nation that passionately follows its Olympic heroes.
The journey from ‘Mindset to Medal’ has officially begun.