Introducing Ms. Fan Yiungha – ICSSPE Executive Board Member

The International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education (ICSSPE) is pleased to highlight an interview with Ms Fan, Executive Board Member of ICSSPE and Director of the Education Division at the All-China Sports Federation. With extensive experience in national sport governance, education, and coach development, Ms Fan brings valuable insight from one of the world’s largest and most dynamic sport systems, contributing a strong Asian perspective to ICSSPE’s global mission.

In her role at the All-China Sports Federation, Ms Fan oversees education and training across a large and diverse sport landscape. Her work focuses on strengthening the foundations of sport through systematic talent development, ensuring that both elite and grassroots sport are supported by high-quality coaching and education structures. This experience has reinforced her view that sport education is central to the sustainable development of sport systems.

Before joining the ICSSPE Executive Board, Ms Fan has played a key role in advancing sport education strategies in China, including the implementation of policies that promote closer integration between sport and education systems. This approach aims to strengthen talent pathways, enhance career development opportunities for coaches, and support a more coherent and effective sport ecosystem.

In her interview, Ms Fan highlights several key areas where ICSSPE can play a transformative role:

• Strengthening coach education and talent development: She emphasises the importance of systematic coach development in ensuring the long-term sustainability of sport systems. Addressing challenges such as fragmented training structures, limited grassroots capacity, and gaps in scientific literacy is essential to improving the quality of talent globally.
• Promoting international standards and knowledge exchange: Ms Fan underlines ICSSPE’s potential to facilitate the mutual recognition of coach education standards, support the development of evidence-based training curricula, and create platforms for sharing knowledge and experiences across countries and regions.
• Integrating values-based education and athlete wellbeing: Highlighting the role of coaches as educators, she advocates for approaches that balance performance with ethical, educational, and social values, supporting the holistic development and long-term wellbeing of athletes.
• Advancing global and regional cooperation: With a particular focus on Asia, Ms Fan points to the need for stronger international collaboration and exchange. She sees ICSSPE as a key bridge between regions, enabling the sharing of diverse experiences while supporting the development of context-specific frameworks for sport education.

Ms Fan also highlights the importance of two-way knowledge exchange, noting the opportunity to both introduce international best practices into national systems and share China’s experience in systematic talent cultivation with the global community.

Her vision aligns closely with ICSSPE’s commitment to advancing evidence-based practice, fostering inclusive and sustainable sport systems, and strengthening international cooperation across sport science, education, and policy.

Read the full interview with Ms Fan in the attachment below to explore her insights on coach education, international collaboration, and the future development of global sport systems.