IOC Executive Board meetings over, focus turns to Session vote on Olympic Agenda 2020

KALYAN KUMAR MAHATA The true appellation of Apu. A Creative Commons license.

©IOC/Ian Jones

06/12/2014

The Executive Board (EB) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) concluded two days of meetings today ahead of the 127th IOC Session in Monaco. The 40 recommendations that make up Olympic Agenda 2020, a strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement, will be voted on by the full IOC membership on 8 and 9 December.

At a press conference following the EB meetings, IOC President Thomas Bach compared the anticipation ahead of the vote to an athlete finishing training in preparation for an actual competition.
“I feel like an athlete before a final”, said President Bach, who initiated discussions on Olympic Agenda 2020 in mid-2013. “There has been training and preparation for a year, and like an athlete longs for the start of the competition, I look forward to the start of the Session. I feel like the moment has come for the real thing to happen. It is not training anymore, it is decision time.”
Olympic Agenda 2020 preparations for the 127th IOC Session were a focus of the Executive Board meetings. The President said the EB was encouraged by the support received by all Olympic Movement stakeholders.
©IOC/Ian Jones
“Representatives from the Summer and Winter International Federations confirmed their support, as did the Chair of the IOC Athletes’ Commission. Approval was also expressed by the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC). All, together, are supportive with regard to Olympic Agenda 2020. This makes the Executive Board confident that the Session will approve Olympic Agenda 2020.”
President Bach then outlined the voting procedure for the Session: “The chairs of the 14 Working Groups will introduce the topics and recommendations of their respective groups. The recommendations of each Working Group will then be debated. The vote will be one by one – each recommendation will be voted on individually. If one recommendation requires a change to the Olympic Charter, we would vote again to make the relevant change.”
The EB also had discussions on the Olympic Games in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 and the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang 2018. “With regard to Rio, we were happy to learn that with 20 months to go, 70 per cent of the Brazilian population think the Games will be a success”, said President Bach. “There is good support for the Games. There is good progress in the construction of venues and preparations, and their engagement policies were very well approved.
“As for PyeongChang and Tokyo, we had discussions with both organising committees about following up on potential opportunities with which Olympic Agenda 2020 would provide them. If changes are approved by the Session, in particular more flexibility, we would start implementing right after the Session. We will have project reviews in January and February to follow up on this in both cities to see what Olympic Agenda 2020 can do for the organisation of their Games.”
Specifically on potential changes to the Olympic programme, the IOC President said: “It will be the responsibility of a host city to propose the inclusion of one or several new events. If we are talking about an event that belongs to a sport which is already on the Olympic programme, the decision on the inclusion will be made by the IOC Executive Board. If the event belongs to a sport that is not featured in the programme, then the decision will fall under the remit of the Session. The purpose of the exercise is to allow host cities to reflect even more on their sports culture. There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution. The idea is to give more flexibility to cities and allow more creativity.
On potential venue changes, he added: “We are discussing with the respective organising committees on what Olympic Agenda 2020 means for them. Venue changes will of course be discussed especially if they lead to more sustainability and less expense.”
With regard to the 2024 bidding process, the President said: “Yes, the timeline for 2024 has been approved by the IOC Executive Board. The invitation phase that we want to introduce into the process will be discussed as part of Olympic Agenda 2020 during the Session and, if approved, this invitation phase will precede the two other phases approved yesterday.”
Finally, when asked about the recent doping allegations in Russia, Bach replied: “These are serious allegations which are currently in the hands of the IAAF Ethics Commission. Given the seriousness of the allegations it is the responsibility of the IOC to respect the rules of law and the right of defence so we will not interfere nor comment on an ongoing procedure. We have asked to be informed of all the results that might affect people under the remit of the IOC and here I am not only talking about the athletes but also their entourage.”

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International Volunteer Day: Thank you to those who help make the Games happen!

KALYAN KUMAR MAHATA The true appellation of Apu. A Creative Commons license.

05/12/2014

Today is International Volunteer Day 2014. As an organisation that involves volunteers, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is celebrating and recognising those central to helping us bring every edition of the Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games to life – the volunteers!

Often clad in eye-catching uniforms to make them easy for spectators to spot, the volunteers at both Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games can be found welcoming visitors to the venues, meeting delegations at the airport, transporting athletes to and from competition sites or performing various other critical roles behind the scenes.
From the 2,191 volunteers at the Helsinki Olympic Games in 1952 to the 70,000 at the London Games in 2012, each edition of the Games has seen incredible support from thousands of men and women, who in the lead-up to and during the Games work freely and tirelessly in an array of areas and functions to ensure that everything runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible. The Games would simply not be the same without their dedication, motivation and smiles!
The Olympic Movement has a long tradition of volunteerism dating back to the beginning of the Movement and the first Games in 1896, and which continues today at all levels, from the volunteer at the NOC level, who gives his/her time to help train young athletes; to the Games-time volunteer and to the IOC members, who are all volunteers and give their time willingly to help promote the ideals of Olympism and build a better world through sport.
In recognition of their role, volunteers are provided with everything they need to ensure they have the best Games experience possible, including meals, accommodation and a variety of leisure activities, ranging from educational programmes to concerts.
Great Britain’s Ian Kershaw, who volunteered during the London 2012 Olympic Games and hopes to have the chance to relive life as volunteer in Rio, says of his experience: “In London I was a workforce team leader in the Athletes’ Village. It was the best month of my life, being surrounded by such positivity in all respects. I registered [as a volunteer] for Rio 2016  on the first day possible.”
Creating human legacies
Prior to the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, Russia had never had any volunteering initiatives. Nevertheless, thanks to a nationwide campaign, 200,000 applicants heeded the call for volunteers. After a selection phase, 25,000 individuals from 11 different time zones representing every region of Russia (from as far afield as St Petersburg, Vladivostok, Arkhangelsk and Omsk) and from other countries flocked to Sochi to make their mark on Olympic history.
As Sochi 2014 CEO and President Dmitry Chernyshenko pointed out earlier this year: “When Sochi began the bidding process in 2005, the concept of volunteering simply did not exist in Russia. Now, the volunteer movement is thriving, with a quarter of a million Russians regularly participating in volunteer activity.”
The enthusiasm of volunteering has been reciprocated at the Youth Olympic Games, with both Singapore in 2010 and Nanjing this summer seeing over 19,000 young volunteers pledge their commitment and youthful energy for the 10-day sporting, cultural and educational event. At the first Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck in 2012, the volunteers were called the “backbone.”
To mark International Volunteer Day, we want to say a big “thank you” to all our volunteers!
And if you want to experience the Games as a volunteer, there’s still time to sign up for Rio 2016 up to December 15, 2014. For more information, visit www.rio2016.com/volunteers.

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IOC awards 2018-2024 broadcast rights in China

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04/12/2014

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today announced that CCTV has been awarded the exclusive broadcast rights in China for the XXIII Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang in 2018, and the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo in 2020, as well as the Olympic Games in 2022 and 2024, the host cities of which have yet to be elected.

IOC President Thomas Bach said: “On behalf of the IOC I am delighted that we will continue to work with our longstanding broadcast partner CCTV. They have demonstrated many times their ability to bring first class coverage of the Olympic Games to hundreds of millions of Chinese people. The revenue the IOC has secured from this agreement will be redistributed to support future organisers of the Olympic Games, as well as supporting sport and athletes in China and around the world.”
Mr.Hu Zhanfan ,President of CCTV said: “This is a win-win agreement. CCTV has been contributing enormously for the recognition and promotion of the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement in China and we are determined to be, as always, a powerful and exceptional partner of the IOC.”
IOC Vice-President Mr Zaiqing Yu, a member of the IOC’s TV Rights and New Media Commission, said: “CCTV is a strong supporter of the Olympic values and we look forward to continuing our partnership through to 2024.”
CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, has acquired the rights across all broadcast platforms, including free-to-air television, subscription television, internet and mobile phone in all languages. The agreement also includes the right to broadcast all editions of the Youth Olympic Games until 2024.
The IOC has an existing agreement with CCTV to broadcast the Rio 2016 Olympic Games: http://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-awards-2014-and-2016-olympic-games-broadcast-rights-in-china/169781

IOC President in Dakar for the Summit of the French-speaking world

KALYAN KUMAR MAHATA The true appellation of Apu. A Creative Commons license.

29/11/2014

With only a few days until the opening in Monaco of the IOC Session, which is preparing to approve Olympic Agenda 2020 – the roadmap that will define the future of the Olympic Movement – IOC President Thomas Bach arrived in Dakar (Senegal), where the XV Summit of the French-speaking world opens today. It is the first time that an IOC President – as the only guest among some 40 heads of state and government – has attended this Summit, which is held every two years.

In parallel to the Summit, the IOC President will meet a number of heads of state and government present in Dakar in order to discuss the role that sport can play in society and the importance of the Olympic Movement in shaping an active youth and building lasting peace. The President will reaffirm the need for the IOC to maintain its independence while at the same time ensuring a continuous dialogue with the world's political leaders.
The President will take advantage of the event to award the highest Olympic distinction, the Olympic Order in gold, to the former President of the Republic of Senegal and current Secretary General of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), Abdou Diouf, who is nearing the end of his term of office. The President praised the work and commitment of Mr Diouf in promoting the French language within Olympism.

The XV Summit of the French-speaking world is taking place on Saturday and Sunday in the Senegalese capital, and will conclude with the election of a new Secretary General of the OIF.

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IOC and IFs team up to protect clean athletes

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©IOC/Chris Graythen

27/11/2014

At a dedicated IOC Sports Integrity Workshop that took place in Lausanne on Wednesday, the IOC together with INTERPOL and both the Summer and Winter Olympic International Federations (IFs) looked into how best to protect sport from competition manipulation. Defending and protecting clean athletes is a top priority of the IOC and within Olympic Agenda 2020, the strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement, initiated by IOC President Thomas Bach and expected to be approved by the IOC full membership in Monaco on 8 and 9 December.

The event was co-organised by the IOC, the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) and the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES).
ASOIF President Francesco Ricci Bitti said: “In concluding today’s Workshop, ASOIF President Francesco Ricci-Bitti stated ‘Today’s Workshop, with the testimony provided by INTERPOL and the Tennis Integrity Unit, showed the complexity of the problem that sport is facing. The IOC, as the umbrella organisation for sport, has taken the lead to address this problem and we thank them for their dedication.”
17 IFs already signed up to new “IBIS” intelligence system At today’s workshop, the IOC presented IBIS, its Integrity Betting Intelligence System, to the IFs. IBIS has been designed to become the primary source of betting information for the Olympic Movement, and aims to step up the fight against manipulation and corruption linked to sports betting. All seven International Olympic Winter Federations signed up ahead of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, for which IBIS was operational for the first time and proved to be very successful. In view of the next Olympic Games in Rio in 2016, all 28 Olympic Summer Federations will have signed up to IBIS and will be integrated into the IOC’s intelligence system. Ten of them are already on board, with the latest additions being the sports of aquatics, badminton and boxing.  Football will continue to use its own monitoring system, but has already signed a partnership agreement with the IOC committing to a mutual exchange of information.
Permanent support system for IFsChristophe De Kepper, IOC Director General, said: “The high participation of IFs in today’s workshop and the great interest they have shown in joining IBIS is very encouraging. Clearly, the IFs have a major role to play when it comes to protecting their sports from competition manipulation, and today was another occasion for the IOC to give them the tools to do so. The IOC runs and finances IBIS which remains operational between editions of the Olympic Games. It is only logical for the IFs to take advantage of this opportunity and use IBIS at their major international events and other multisport events.”
Read the factsheet about IBIS here.
IOC-INTERPOL partnershipBesides the presentation of IBIS, the workshop also addressed the use of investigatory procedures and the education of the IFs’ stakeholders about the risk of competition manipulation. INTERPOL, which has worked in close partnership with the IOC for several years, explained the process of a criminal investigation and how it differs from a sports disciplinary one. The IOC strengthened its partnership with INTERPOL through an official Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) earlier this year, widening the scope of previous activities between the two organisations. The global implementation of activities will begin in January 2015 with joint initiatives planned in the field of training and awareness-raising for sports organisations and law enforcement agencies, including joint workshops and tailored training material.
Learn more about the IOC’s initiatives to protect clean athletes and to educate about the risk of competition manipulation here.

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Nine centres worldwide recognised as IOC Research Centres for Prevention of Injury and Protection of Athlete Health

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©Getty

25/11/2014

Protecting athletes’ health and preventing injuries and illnesses in sport are top priorities for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its Medical Commission. Nine research centres from across the world have thus been named as IOC Research Centres for Prevention of Injury and Protection of Athlete Health.

These centres are:

• Australian Centre for Research into Injury in Sport and its Prevention, Federation University Australia, Australia
• Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre, University of Calgary, Canada
• Institute of Sports Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark
• Yonsei University, Republic of Korea (South Korea)
• Amsterdam Collaboration on Health & Safety in Sports, VU University and Academic Medical Centre, Netherlands
• Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Norway
• Aspetar, Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Qatar
• Clinical Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Group, University of Cape Town, South Africa
• London’s Institute for Sports, Exercise and Health (ISEH) and National Centre for Sports Exercise and Medicine (NCSEM), United Kingdom

Over the next four years, these centres will be tasked with researching, developing and implementing effective preventive and treatment methods for sports-related injuries and illnesses. They will receive financial support from the IOC and join an international network of expert scientists and clinicians in sports-injury and disease-prevention research.
“We are delighted to have appointed nine highly qualified centres from the four corners of the world to assist us with our mission,” commented IOC Medical Commission Chair and Executive Board member Dr Uğur Erdener. “These centres have all demonstrated that they are at the forefront of research in sports medicine and are committed to our shared goal of using knowledge and resources to ensure the athletes’ well-being so that sportsmen and women can perform at their best level with minimal risks to their health.”  
The IOC Head of Scientific Activities, Lars Engebretsen, added: “While athletes were previously active until they were 25, today they compete until they are 40 to 45 at a very high level. An injury to one of them is a major issue, so treatment and prevention have become all the more important.”
Since 2009, the IOC, under the leadership of its Medical Commission, has supported and partnered with established research centres from around the world which have demonstrated clinical, educational, and research expertise in the fields of sports medicine and elite sports to promote the athletes’ health through the prevention of injury and illness.  
Collaborating closely with the newly-appointed nine research centres, the IOC aims to further promote and protect the health of athletes by:

• Establishing long-term research programmes on injury and disease prevention (including underlying studies on epidemiology, risk factors, and mechanisms),
• Fostering collaborative relationships with individuals, institutions and organisations to improve athletes’ health,
• Implementing applied, ongoing and novel research and development within the framework and long-term strategy of the IOC,
• Setting up knowledge translation mechanisms to share scientific research results with the field throughout the Olympic Movement and sports community and to convert these results into concrete actions to protect the health of the athletes.

Learn more about the IOC Medical Commission
The International Olympic Committee is a not-for-profit independent international organisation made up of volunteers, which is committed to building a better world through sport. It redistributes more than 90 per cent of its income to the wider sporting movement, helping athletes and sports organisations at all levels around the world.

Say hello to the mascots of Rio 2016

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©RIO 2016

24/11/2014

The mascots for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games have said Oi! (hello!) to the world for the first time. Inspired by the fauna and flora of Brazil, the mascots feature various influences from pop culture, along with elements of animation and computer game characters.

The mascots blend fiction and reality and were both born on 2 October 2009, when Rio de Janeiro was elected to host the Games and the people’s great joy was felt by nature. It was from this energy that the mascots were created.
The Olympic mascot is a mixture of the different animals of Brazil. It lives its life by playing, jumping, running and smiling, and it can stretch and stretch and stretch itself, as much as it wants. As a mixture of Brazilian animals, it can also do the same things they can, like run faster, jump higher, and be stronger. It’s also able to imitate the voice of any animal, so it’s super communicative. 
The Olympic mascot plays all the Olympic sports and its favourite pastime is making new friends. Its best friend is the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games mascot. It lives in a tree-house, in the Tijuca Forest, from where it can see the whole city and plan animal adventures. The mascot’s mission is to spread joy throughout the world and celebrate the friendship that flourishes between people from all over the world at this super sports event.
The Paralympic mascot is a unique mixture of Brazilian flora. It is able to pull crazy objects out of his head of leaves in order to get out of any jam. It knows all the secrets of nature and understands that with creativity, intelligence and determination, we can achieve whatever we want. It plays all the Paralympic sports and loves samba and all kinds of Brazilian music. Its mission is to inspire everybody to use creativity and determination to always reach further and have fun.
After the mascots’ unveiling, a poll to decide their names was opened. Everyone can vote for their choice from a shortlist of three pairs of names, one for the Olympic mascot, the other for the Paralympic mascot, respectively. The name choices are Oba and Eba; Tiba Tuque and Esquindim; and Vinicius and Tom. People can vote at www.rio2016.com/mascots as well as on the Rio 2016 Twitter feed (@Rio2016). Both mascots will have their own website and profiles on social media.

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