POCOG finalises venues as fourth PyeongChang 2018 Project Review concludes

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©PyeongChang 2018

16/01/2015

The venue master plan for the PyeongChang 2018 Games has been finalised, it was announced at the conclusion of the fourth project review visit (15-16 January 2015) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Coordination Commission to the coastal city of Gangneung. While good progress has been made since the IOC’s last visit, the Chair of the IOC’s Commission, Gunilla Lindberg, also stressed that timelines remain tight, including ahead of test events starting in 2016.

Speaking after the meeting, Chair Lindberg said, “As we enter the delivery stage of the Games, some key priorities have been identified, and this has retained the full attention of President Cho, who is leading the organisational effort. Timelines in a number of areas remain tight, including for test events, so the PyeongChang Organising Committee (POCOG) and its partners must continue to accelerate their work and reorganisation in order to ensure the successful delivery of the venues and related services.” She continued, “The approval of the Olympic Agenda 2020 recommendations by the IOC created the opportunity for the Korean organisers to propose hosting sports or disciplines outside the host city in order to maximise legacies and minimise costs where feasible. Since then, both POCOG and their Government partners have made it clear that they will maintain their current venue plan. As a result, the venue master plan is now finalised.”

At the opening of the meeting, Yang Ho Cho, the President of POCOG, said, “I feel great responsibility to ensure PyeongChang’s success. You have my assurances that I am fully committed to the Games through 2018.” He continued, “I ask everyone here today to contribute to our objective of successful Games.”

Day one of the two-day meeting included a visit to a number of the new venues being built for the Games, including the Gangneung Ice Arena, Gyeongpo Oval, Yulgok Hockey Centre, Kwandong Hockey Centre, Jeongseon Alpine Centre and the Alpensia Sliding Centre. This was followed by executive meetings, part of which was joined by Gangwon Province Governor Choi Moon-soon.

Governor Choi confirmed that, from the region’s side, everything was being put in place to deliver the Games successfully. He also emphasised that the delivery plans for the upcoming test events were settled, allowing preparations to move ahead at full speed.
This was followed on day two by progress reports on all key areas of the Games organisation. Some of the areas covered included athlete and National Olympic Committee services, sport, venues and infrastructure, marketing, accommodation, transport, technology, people management, test events and legacy.

The Project Review meetings are technical visits to the host city, which are attended by the Coordination Commission Chair and IOC staff, and serve as interim updates between full Coordination Commission visits. The next update to the IOC will be the Coordination Commission visit in March.

Wrestlers take to the floor alongside IOC President for launch of “Super 8” campaign

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©IOC / Christophe Moratal

15/01/2015

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach joined United World Wrestling (UWW) President Nenad Lalovic and Olympic wrestlers at The Olympic Museum in Lausanne this week to kick off UWW’s “Super 8” campaign promoting gender equality in the sport.

IOC President Thomas Bach and various representatives of the IOC and UWW watched as the athletes began a demonstration of popular wrestling techniques. Later, along with IOC Executive Board member and Chair of the IOC Athletes’ Commission Claudia Bokel, the President took to the floor and was coached on a takedown technique.
An eight-week programme that will conclude on International Women’s Day on 8 March, the “Super 8” campaign brings together eight female wrestlers, including three Olympic champions, for two months of activities to raise awareness of women’s wrestling and increase female participation at all levels of the sport. This initiative follows the International Federation’s pledge in 2013 to ensure gender equity in wrestling.
UWW President Lalovic stated: “We’re committed to matching the IOC and President Bach’s pledge to ensure more opportunities for female athletes around the world. This event is only the beginning of our progress. I know that we are united in our goals.”

Olympic silver medallist Claudia Bokel also attended a meeting of the wrestling body’s newly-formed Athlete Commission and participated in a panel discussion on women in wrestling and international sport.
Speaking at the event, Bokel said: “This was a great day spent with a wonderful group of female athletes and leaders. This positive action is working well for wrestling, and I think it opens the way for future development. In the end, this is really about the sport and the athletes.”
For more information, visit UWW: http://unitedworldwrestling.org/.

2024 bid process gets underway with new Invitation Phase as IOC begins to implement Olympic Agenda 2020 Reforms

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15/01/2015

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today launched the bid process for the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad in 2024 with an Invitation Phase. It is the first bid process following the adoption four weeks ago of Olympic Agenda 2020, the IOC’s strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement. Interested National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and potential bid cities are invited to discuss their initial ideas with the IOC and receive various levels of assistance and feedback ahead of the 15 September deadline for officially committing to a bid. There has been strong interest in hosting the 2024 Olympic Games, with the NOCs of Germany, Italy and the United States already indicating their intention to bid.

The 40 reforms that make up Olympic Agenda 2020 were unanimously adopted by the 127th IOC Session in Monaco in December 2014. Through Olympic Agenda 2020, the IOC has demonstrated its commitment to safeguarding the uniqueness of the Olympic Games and strengthening sport in society. Implementing the reforms in the bidding process has already begun, as it has in a number of other areas, including the setting up of an Olympic Channel.
Changes to the 2024 Olympic bid process centre on:
- Shaping the bid process as an invitation
- Strengthening the evaluation of bid cities to more clearly highlight key opportunities and risks
- Reducing the cost of bidding and organising the Games
The IOC will contribute approximately USD 1.5 billion* to the organisation of the 2024 Olympic Games.
Through these changes, the IOC is emphasising that bidding for the Games is not a tender for a franchise, and that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The bid process is about making proposals and offering solutions that will deliver excellent Games, with no compromise on the field of play for the athletes while also meeting the needs of the city and region to ensure the Games leave a positive, long-term, sustainable legacy. 
Potential bid cities are encouraged to place greater emphasis on the use of existing venues, and temporary and demountable venues where no long-term need exists or can be justified.
NOCs are invited to inform the IOC of their interest in bidding for the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad in 2024 at their earliest convenience. The IOC will then contact these NOCs to determine the best way the IOC can assist them during the Invitation Phase. To assist interested cities and their NOCs to develop a project that best meets each city’s unique long-term development needs, the IOC will make available the “core requirements” necessary to organise the Games.
The deadline for NOCs to officially launch a bid for the 2024 Olympic Games is 15 September 2015 – the start of the Applicant City Phase that will continue through to the start of the Candidate City Phase in April/May 2016. The election of the host city will take place in the summer of 2017.  
In keeping with the IOC’s commitment to good governance, transparency and ethics, the Host City Contract, Evaluation Commission reports and other documentation will be made public on www.olympic.org. Click here for the letter and outline of the three bid phases sent to the NOCs today.
Details of the second and third phases of the bid process are as follows:
Applicant City Phase
COMMITMENT TO BID AND DEVELOPMENT OF BID CONCEPT
- 15 September: deadline for NOC and City to submit letter to IOC confirming the Application
- IOC makes available to Applicant City and their NOC the full package of bid documentation: full list of Olympic Games “requirements”; Applicant and Candidate City procedures and Questionnaires; Olympic Charter; Host City Contract – including details of the IOC’s contribution to the organisation of the Games
- Focus on sustainability and legacy through the maximum use of existing, temporary and demountable facilities
- IOC hosts Applicant City seminar
- Applicant Cities submit Application File to the IOC
- IOC evaluates applications and makes a report to the IOC Executive Board
- IOC Executive Board selects Candidate Cities
Candidate City Phase
DEVELOPMENT OF DETAILED GAMES PLAN
- Cities participate in IOC Olympic Games Observer Programme, Rio 2016
- Cities participate in Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games debrief in Tokyo
- IOC organises workshops with Candidate Cities – tailored to needs
- Candidate Cities submit Candidature File to the IOC
- Candidate Cities make presentations to the following meetings only: ANOC General Assembly in 2017, International Olympic Summer Sports Federations, IOC Candidate City Briefing, IOC Session in Lima, Peru 
- IOC Evaluation Commission visits each Candidate City and publishes report
- Election of the Host City by the 130th IOC Session in Lima, Peru, Summer 2017 (dates TBC)
- Host City and IOC sign the Host City Contract
 
* Details of the IOC contribution to the 2024 OCOG to be included in the Host City Contract made available to Applicant Cities in September 2015 

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Bjørn Dæhlie: Remembering Lillehammer

14/01/2015

In the latest of our exclusive video interviews, the greatest cross-country skier of all time, Bjørn Dæhlie, recalls his finest hour.

In the 1990s, Norway’s Bjørn Dæhlie established himself as the most successful cross-country skier in history, notching up 29 Olympic and world championship podiums, including eight golds at the Winter Games and seven world titles. Additionally, he scored a total of 46 victories in the FIS World Cup and won no less than six large crystal globes. Up until Sochi 2014, when he was overtaken by his compatriot, the biathlete Ole Einar Bjørndalen, he held the record for the most Olympic medals won by a winter athlete, with 12 in total, achieved over the course of three editions of the Games (Albertville 1992, Lillehammer 1994 and Nagano 1998).
On the Saisies cross country course at Albertville 1992, Dæhlie made a blistering Olympic debut, finishing on four of the five podiums in the men’s cross country events. His first triumph came in the 25km pursuit, and he followed that up with golds in the 50km and then in the 4x10km relay alongside Terje Langli, Kristen Skejdal and his role model Vegard Ulvang. He added a silver in the 30km and finished just off the podium in the 10km.


He was equally imperious when the Winter Games came to his native Norway two years later, again taking medals in four of the five cross country events at Lillehammer 1994: gold in the 10km and 25km pursuit, and silver in the 30km and the 4x10km relay. Once more he narrowly missed out on a ‘full house’ of medals, finishing fourth in the 50km.
It was déjà vu all over again at Nagano 1998, though this time three of Dæhlie’s four medals were gold, as he topped the podium in the 10km, the 50km and the 4x10km relay (this time with Thomas Alsgaard, Erling Jevne and Sture Sivertsen), adding a silver in the 15km.
The following year, after picking up his latest large crystal globe in the 1999 FIS World Cup, Dæhlie announced his retirement from competition. A national icon in Norway, he went on to forge a successful business career.
Dæhlie enjoyed a truly fabulous career, packed with triumphs and highlights… but what does he regard as his greatest moment as an Olympian? The date is 17 February 1994. The place is Lillehammer, in his native Norway. Wearing the N°1 bib, he entered the stadium for the final 100m of the 10km, cheered on by the delirious crowds that that flanked the home straight. The Norwegian even managed to take the time to salute the local fans, before crossing the finish line and doing a triumphant 360° pirouette on his skis to celebrate an emotional victory. “When I look through the whole of my career, at all my moments in cross country, this was the most fantastic,” he says…

Tokyo 2020 celebrates 2020 days to go

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©TOKYO 2020

12/01/2015

The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee has celebrated 2020 days to go until the Opening Ceremony of the Games of the XXXII Olympiad by gathering together 20-year-old athletes and hundreds of excited spectators to form a giant ‘2020’.

This latest milestone for the Games coincides with Coming of Age Day in Japan, which celebrates young people who have turned 20 in the last year and have officially reached the age of majority. Olympians and athletes joined hundreds of young people, all aged 20 years old, to mark this special day with events in the plaza in front of the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee headquarters, as well as in areas of the Tohoku region affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Among those attending the ceremony were swimmer Kosuke Hagino, a bronze medallist at the London 2012 Olympic Games. “We are extremely thankful that so many young 20-year-olds turned up to show their support, even though it was quite cold today. I really felt that there is an increasing interest in and expectations towards the 2020 Games. I would love to be able repay everyone’s support by winning a gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games,” he said.
Joined by 20-year-old swimmers Akihiro Yamaguchi and Daiya Seto, gymnast Akiho Sato and para-cyclist Miho Fujii, Hagino took part in a public discussion session.

“It is a fantastic coincidence that this milestone happens to be on Coming of Age Day in Japan. 2020 days to go to Tokyo 2020 celebrated with 20-year-olds; that is a lot of young adults representing a wealth of hopes, dreams and expectations towards the Games. Tokyo 2020 is about inspiring young people through sport, and today we were delighted to have the opportunity to broaden the network of young people eagerly looking forward to the Opening Ceremony in 2020 days’ time,” said Tokyo 2020 Sports Director Koji Murofushi.
Coming of Age Day ceremonies in the disaster-affected areas of Tohoku were held with a special Olympic flavour. Olympic gold medallist Ryota Murata joined Paralympians Shinji Negi and Aki Taguchi for the celebrations in Morioka City, Iwate prefecture; London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Satoshi Shimizu and Paralympic medallist Junichi Kawai took part in the festivities in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi prefecture; while Olympian Fumie Suguri and Paralympian Yusuke Hatsuse participated in the event in Minamisoma City, Fukushima prefecture.
Coming of Age Day (Seijin no Hi) is a Japanese public holiday established in 1948. Festivities and gatherings are organised by municipal authorities across Japan on the second Monday of January each year, and young females typically dress in traditional Japanese kimonos for the occasion.

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Letter to President Hollande and to the French people from IOC President Thomas Bach

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©IOC/Ian Jones

08/01/2015

"It was with an enormous sense of shock and grief that I heard of the appalling attacks which took place in Paris on Wednesday. Such barbaric acts are an attack on the values of all civilised people from whatever country, religion or creed. 
Let me assure you that the entire Olympic Movement, just as all right-thinking people, stand shoulder to shoulder with you and the people of France today. This was a shocking, brutal attack not just on France but on the values for which we all stand, and the values on which the Olympic Movement is also built. France is a country which stands for the civilized values of tolerance, friendship and respect. Those guns were aimed not just at journalists but at freedom of speech and the values for which France stands so strongly.
As you so rightly said, ‘this was an act of exceptional barbarism’. But these terrorist atrocities will only serve to unite the people of France to stand together against such mindless violence and we in the Olympic Movement stand side by side with you and with France in solidarity."

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New Year Message from IOC President Thomas Bach

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©IOC/Ian Jones

05/01/2015

"2014 was a momentous year for the Olympic Movement. After almost 18 months of debate and discussion we reached a strong consensus within the Olympic Movement on Olympic Agenda 2020. The unanimous approval of the 40 recommendations that make up Olympic Agenda 2020 gives us a clear vision of where we are headed and how we can protect the uniqueness of the Games and strengthen Olympic values in society.

It is critical that in 2015 we capitalise on the momentum and energy we have created. We are already moving to the implementation of our strategic roadmap for the future:  Olympic Agenda 2020 recommendations will be fully applied in the bid process for the Olympic Games 2024, which opens on 15 January 2015. A new invitation phase will be offered to cities interested in hosting the Games so that they can discuss their initial interest with the IOC. We can already see strong interest around the world in those Games.  The Olympic Winter Games 2022 bid process is already underway, but elements of Olympic Agenda 2020 will be implemented where possible, especially with regard to the IOC assisting bid cities in reducing costs and ensuring a sustainable legacy.

Work continues on the Olympic Channel which will provide a platform for the promotion of Olympic sports, athletes and the Olympic values beyond the period of the Games. We will start developing the brand and “look” of the Channel, as well as working with the TOP sponsors on collaboration.  The corporate structure of the Channel will be developed, and we will start to hire the key staff who will launch and run the Channel. The Channel will harness the huge global interest and extend it beyond the Games in a way that will engage audiences, especially young audiences, in the power of what sport can do.
This year, the IOC will celebrate 100 years in Lausanne. Preparatory work will continue on a new building which will consolidate the IOC headquarters in one location in Lausanne. The IOC administration will be brought together at Olympic Unity House, resulting in substantial long-term savings, increased working efficiency and energy conservation.
2015 will see the preparations for Rio gathering pace, with one year to go marked on 5 August. The preparations are on a good footing, and support for the Games are on the rise. There will be more than 20 test events during 2015. Rio 2016 should be congratulated on its efforts as we move into the delivery phase.
Even if there are no Olympic Games this year, we will have many outstanding sports events in 2015 with Continental Games and many World Championships in Olympic sports which will help foster unity amongst the stakeholders of the Olympic Movement.
Our work undertaken in collaboration with the United Nations will also play an increasingly important role in the year ahead. Following the UN General Assembly’s recognition of the autonomy of the IOC and sport, we must work to strengthen the autonomy of sport. It is essential that we work with national governments to integrate sport into the UN post 2015 Development Agenda, particularly in the fields of education, health, urban planning, cohesion of society and peace-building.
We will continue to work closely with the UN to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport without discrimination of any kind. In 2015 and beyond, we will work together to produce sporting initiatives to promote social integration and economic development worldwide. 
We head into 2015 united and confident, with an Olympic Movement more successful than ever. We have built on our unity in diversity. Working together, we can accomplish even more in the year ahead.
Happy New Year 2015!"

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