Keynote speakers
Caroline Bolling
Caroline Bolling is a Brazilian sports physiotherapist. She worked with elite athletes from diverse Olympic sports in national and international competition and was the head therapist of Cirque du Soleil. She completed her PhD at the Vrije Universiteit- Amsterdam UMC, with a qualitative study on the experiences of elite athletes and artists about the prevention of sports injuries. Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher at the Amsterdam Collaboration on Health and Safety in Sports – IOC Research Center/Amsterdam UMC, working in multiple projects developing practice-driven research targeting sports injury prevention, complexity and qualitative research
Jean Fournier
Jean Fournier, PhD, is a psychologist and professor at Université Paris Nanterre. He currently serves as Executive Director of MICEFA (Mission Interuniversitaire de Coordination des Échanges Franco-Américains).
His research focuses on mental training, mindfulness, and decision-making. For over 30 years, he has consulted in mental training with Olympic athletes and coaches at the French Institute of Sport (INSEP) in Paris and the Institut National du Sport du Québec in Canada.
Jean served as Co-Editor of the International Journal of Sport Psychology for ten years and is the past president of the French Society of Sport Psychology. His forthcoming book, co-edited with Dr. Natalie Durand-Bush, is entitled Mental Health in Sport: Contemporary Views and Real-World Applications.
Rita Cordovil
Rita Cordovil is a Full Professor at the Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, University of Lisbon (FMH-UL). She teaches Development, Motor Control and Learning and is a member of the Motor Behavior Laboratory and coordinates the Skill Learning Group of CIPER. She holds a PhD in Human Kinetics (2010), a Master in Sport Psychology (2005), and a degree in Sport Science (1996) (all from FMH). Her research addresses perception-action, risk affordances, motor competence, and independent mobility in children. In the past, she was a physical education teacher in different primary and secondary schools in the area of Lisbon. Rita focuses on how outdoor play and movement contribute to child development and collaborates with local authorities on educational strategies. Research interests: Motor Development, Motor Competence, Motor Learning, Perception and Action, Child Safety, Risky Play, Play Environments, Independent Mobility, Cycling.
Andrea Petroczi
Andrea Petroczi is a Research Professor at Kingston University London and a globally recognized expert in anti-doping, with a multidisciplinary background in psychology, management and marketing, and journalism. She is also a Senior Research Fellow at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest and a Research Professor position at Széchenyi István University, Győr in Hungary. She holds visiting positions at the University of Rome ‘Foro Italico’ (Italy) and the Willibald Gebhardt Institute at the University of Münster (Germany).
Her research spans various anti-doping topics, currently focusing on doping prevalence; the meaning of being ‘clean’ in sport, performance enhancement, and anti-doping; the impact of anti-doping policies on clean athletes; athlete vulnerability; and the role of values and personal integrity in anti-doping education. She collaborates internationally, and has worked with Oceania RADO and the Olympic Council of Asia on research projects.
Prof. Petroczi earned her first PhD in sports administration with a minor in research methods and applied statistics from the University of Northern Colorado (2002) and a second PhD in psychology from the University of Sheffield (2015). She is a founding member of the Clean Sport Alliance and served as chair of WADA’s Doping Prevalence Working Group from 2017 to 2023. She currently remains an active member of this group and is a consultant for the Prevalence Survey.
Paul Wylleman
Paul Wylleman is full-professor Sport psychology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel teaching and conducting research on career (transitions), performance behavior and mental competences, mental health and wellbeing, sport psychologists’ competences as well as the quality of (sport) psychology support services in elite sport. Paul heads the university department Topsport and Study, the research group Sport Psychology and Mental Support and the Brussels Olympic and Research Education Centre. With his colleagues he (co-)coordinated Erasmus+ and international projects on the dual career, the post-athletic career, the mental health of athletes, coaches and entourage, as well as on the organization of mental health support services. Paul published in sport psychology and sport science journals and was keynote and invited speaker at many international conferences, national Olympic committees and elite sport organizations. He served for 16 years on the Managing Council the European Federation of Sport Psychology (FEPSAC) and functioned two terms as its President (2007-2015). He received the 2017 Distinguished International Scholar Award from the Association of Applied Sport Psychology (AASP, USA) and the 2025 Distinguished International Sport Psychologist Award from the International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP). Paul was expert Performance Behavior for the Dutch Olympic Committee (NOC*NSF; 2013-2022) and team psychologist for the Netherlands’ TeamNL at the Rio 2016 and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Since 2022 he is the Expert Psychology for the Belgian Olympic Committee (BOIC) and was TeamBelgium’s team psychologist and Welfare Officer at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Sophia Jowett
Dr. Sophia Jowett is an internationally recognised expert in interpersonal relationships, leadership, and communication in high-performance environments (sport, performance arts, school, organisatons). A former Professor of Psychology at one of the UK’s leading sport universities, she is now the founder and Director of Tandem Performance Consulting and a research fellow at several universities worldwide. Sophia has been consistently ranked among the top 2% of scientists globally and was named the 2nd most influential researcher worldwide in sport coaching science (1st in Europe). Her work, cited more than 20,000 times, has shaped coach education and leadership practice especially within the sport sector. She is co-editor of the influential book Social Psychology in Sport, creator of TANDEM, a digital platform supporting performance relationships, and lead author of the CARE educational programme funded by the International Olympic Committee. Sophia has also served as a psychologist for the Greek Olympic Team. A sought-after speaker and advisor, she works with leaders, teams, and organisations to elevate performance through the power of high-quality relationships