Yuliya Stepanova became famous for exposing the Russian state doping scandal. Today, she attended the opening of Play the Games’ conference in Colorado Springs with her husband Vitaly Stepanov.

Sport would be nothing without its participants. But are the rights of athletes still taking a back seat to commercial and political interests?

Over 300 participants will be gathered in the coming days during Play the Game 2019 which for the first time is being held outside of Europe. More than 170 speakers will share their views and thoughts on sport and society in Colorado Springs - Olympic City USA.

Play the Game has again benchmarked a group of international Olympic federations. In spite of improvements, four out of six are still below a 50% score.

What's grassroots sport all about? At Play the Game 2019 top speakers within the area will shed light on both micro- and macro-level challenges in grassroots sport.

At Play the Game 2019 top speakers from IOC and UEFA along with investigators looking into corruption in FIFA will debate governance related issues in the biggest sports organisations.

At Play the Game 2019 professionals, journalists and academics with extensive experience in the fight against match-fixing will present and discuss the global problem of fixed sport competitions which continue to threaten the credibility of sport despite various initiatives and measures to prevent it.

When Play the Game kicks off its 11th world communication conference on society and sport the main theme will be athlete activism and the rights of athletes.