Teens Get Active with Olympic Moves

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©NOC*NSF

12/06/2015

On 5 June, 6,000 teenagers from 200 schools across the Netherlands came together to participate in the final of the “Olympic Moves” programme. Held in the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam, the participants competed in 14 sports disciplines.

Olympic Moves is the result of a partnership between Worldwide TOP Partner Coca-Cola, the IOC and NOC*NSF. It is the largest school sports programme in the Netherlands, and through a combination of sport, music and entertainment, it encourages young people...etcthe largest school sports programme in the Netherlands, and through a combination of sport, music and entertainment, it encourages young people to get active and contributes to their development. The final was the culmination of months of training and competition.
NOC*NSF General Manager Mr Gerard Dielessen said: “Via Olympic Moves, we want to reach and inspire pupils of secondary schools with the power of sports and actively carry out the Olympic values of ‘excellence, ‘respect’ and ‘friendship’. Exercising together offers young people lots of fun, enthusiasm and satisfaction, and contributes to their personal development. We win with sport.”
This year, Olympic Moves was promoted widely across social media, including Facebook, and became a trending topic on Twitter, with 2.5 million impressions.

For over 10 years, Olympic Moves has been encouraging change and getting over 150,000 students a year physically active. To see further examples of how Olympic Moves has been used as a powerful tool to engage young people, see: http://www.olympic.org/news/olympic-moves-programme-inspiring-change/244316.
The NOC*NSF and Coca-Cola are already planning to further develop the next phase of the Olympic Moves project in the Netherlands, including bringing in exciting new concepts. The IOC and TOP Partner Coca-Cola are looking to develop the programme internationally, working with other National Olympic Committees in the future.

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IOC President meets athletes - sees first competitions, after attending spectacular European Games opening ceremony

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©IOC/Ian Jones (2) / Getty (2)

13/06/2015

President Bach attended the first competitions on the opening day of the European Games in Baku.  During the day he met athletes from shooting, triathlon, karate and wrestling.

President Bach began the day by visiting the brand new Baku shooting centre, which will go on to host the ISSF World Cup next year and the European Championships the year after. The President went on to see the Women's Triathlon. After the competition, he met the winner and London 2012 gold medallist, Swiss athlete Nicola Spirig.
Later the President also visited Karate and Wrestling.
The packed day of competition followed the opening ceremony, which included a surprise appearance by Lady Gaga.

"This was a spectacular opening ceremony full of symbolism and history. It showed how sport can unite people and build bridges," he said.
"We saw Russian athletes marching alongside Ukrainians. We saw Serbian and Kosovan teams marching at the opening ceremony, and we saw an Armenian team alongside their hosts from Azerbaijan. This is the power of sport to bring people together regardless of background, belief or nationality. This is something that sport can do, and maybe something that only sport can do," he added.

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Designers around the world compete for the Medal Design Competition

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

        

26/05/2015

From Canada to Colombia, Argentina to Indonesia, creative designers from around the world have submitted their entries for the International Olympic Committee’s highly coveted Medal Design Competition prize for the forthcoming Lillehammer 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games. 

To date, entries have been received from over 40 countries, with the youngest candidate aged just 10 years old to the oldest at 52. 
The competition closes in one week’s time on 1 June and with the high standard of entries it is set to be one of the most hotly contested Medal Design Competitions to date since the inaugural Singapore 2010 YOG.
A judging panel including Olympians and Young Ambassadors and Young Reporters from various editions of the Youth Olympic Games will select the winning design and two-runners-up, and results will be announced at the end of June.  The winning design will then feature on the face of the gold, silver and bronze medals awarded in Lillehammer from 12-21 February 2016. 
The winning designer will win a trip to Lillehammer 2016 which includes tickets to the opening ceremony, as well as a full collection of medals featuring their design.
For more information visit www.medaldesigncompetition.com

IOC President in Rome meets Italian President, Rome 2024 bid leaders, and receives top sports award

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©CONI (2)

22/05/2015

IOC President Thomas Bach was in Rome to receive the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI)’s highest award for contribution to sport. 

He started the day at the Palazzo Quirinale for a meeting with the Italian President.
The leaders discussed the benefits of sport for society. President Sergio Mattarella said: “the world has many problems. Sport is the antidote to those problems because it enters the hearts and minds of people.”
The two leaders also discussed Rome's bid for the 2024 Olympic Games.
President Bach said that Italy was “very well placed”. “With your great attachment to Olympic ideals, with your athletes and your love of sport you will have a strong bid”, he said, adding: “But you will face strong competition.”

Also at the meeting with the Italian President were CONI President Giovanni Malagò and IOC Members Franco Carraro and Mario Pescante.
As part of the Invitation Phase initiated in the framework of the Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms, the President also met members of the Rome 2024 Olympic bid, including leader Luca Cordero Di Montezemolo and the Mayor of Rome, Ignazio Marino.
Later, at the award ceremony, the President was given the “Onesti Award”, named after the long term President of CONI for 34 years until 1978. In the citation, President Bach was praised for “immersing himself in his work with passion” and for “carrying out reforms whilst also respecting tradition.”
Receiving the award, President Bach said he was “glad to be in Italy where you fight for and defend the Olympic values.”
Also at the ceremony were the President of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), Francesco Ricci Bitti; the President of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF), Carlo Croce; the President of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), Bruno Grandi; and the Presidents of the International Skating Union (ISU), Ottavio Cinquanta, and of the International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation (FIBT), Ivo Ferriani.
Previous recipients of the award include Italian sporting icons Alberto Tomba, Sara Simeoni and Pietro Mennea, as well as previous IOC Presidents Juan Antonio Samaranch and Jacques Rogge.

TOP Partner GE supports the IOC ACP Programme

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©Getty Images (1), GE

22/05/2015

The 7th IOC Athlete Career Programme (ACP) Forum, which aims to share best practices on supporting athletes worldwide with their career transitions, will be held in Lima, Peru, from 26 to 28 May.

The Forum will bring together athletes, members of the IOC Athletes’ Commission, NOCs and Adecco representatives, to exchange knowledge and experience on how best to support athletes with balancing dual careers and preparing post-sport careers.
One of the speakers will be former Team USA swimmer and Olympic gold medallist Dan Ketchum, who now works for Worldwide TOP Partner GE as an Operations Leader within the Aviation division. Ketchum will be speaking on a panel about athlete engagement with sponsors, as well as participating in an Athlete Learning Gateway live event focused on athletes in the workplace.

Ketchum said: “I am very excited to be taking part in the IOC ACP Forum. When I finished my career as an athlete, there was little assistance provided to make the transition into the workplace, so I believe the IOC’s Athlete Career Programme will be a great support for other athletes in the future. I want to be able to share the experience and the challenges I faced once my sporting career finished. The IOC is focused on putting athletes at the heart of the Olympic Movement, and, as a former athlete, I believe that there is a lot that GE and I can offer.”
Ketchum competed at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and was part of the winning US team in the men`s 4x200m freestyle relay. Dan joined GE in 2005 as an intern, then a year later transitioned to GE’s Operations Management Leadership Programme.  He has had held several positions in fulfilment, customer service and manufacturing programmes, and currently manages a manufacturing facility for aircraft engines. Dan also spent two years as a high-school swimming coach.
As an advanced technology and services company, GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs about 300,000 people worldwide. Since 2006, 17 Olympians have enjoyed careers with GE following their sports career. These athletes work in a wide range of roles across GE. The company is currently planning additional opportunities with the IOC, and the ACP Forum in Peru will be a focal point in the development of how the business can play a long-term role in supporting the IOC’s Athlete Career Programme.
Chris Katsuleres, Director of Olympic Marketing at GE, said: “As a business, we benefit from the attributes that made the Olympians successful in their athletic careers. Their unique backgrounds and traits, like motivation, focus, drive and determination, are a huge benefit in the work place. Working with the IOC ACP, we are very interested in looking at opportunities that we can provide to athletes in the future through enhanced leadership and management training. We have the world-renowned GE training facility at Crotonville in the USA, and we are interested at looking at how we can use this facility to help transfer athletes’ unique skills and assets into the labour market.”

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Net gains - the evolution of beach volleyball

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

       

21/05/2015

Beach volleyball has come a long way since its formative years on the American beaches. Here, we chart the rise of the popular spectator sport.

A cumulative crowd of 425,000 fans gathered in London in 2012 to watch what was beach volleyball’s fifth appearance at an Olympic Games. The scenes in the British capital were a far cry from the sport’s modest beginnings at the early decades of the 20th century. 
©Getty Images
Volleyball – from which the beach variation later derived – can be traced back to 1895, when American William G Morgan created a less physical version of basketball. It took a further 20 years for beach volleyball to evolve, the beaches of Waikiki in Hawaii providing the perfect platform. The sport quickly spread across to Italy, Russia, India and the rest of Europe thanks to American Extradition Forces, and again when troops travelled to Europe in the 1940s.
The sport enjoyed its greatest acceleration in America during the Great Depression of the 1930s, not least because it was cheap to play and offered people a chance to escape their troubles and head to the beach.
The first two-man version of the sport was played in Santa Monica, California. The same US state also hosted the first two-man tournament in 1947.
©Getty Images
California became a real hotbed for beach volleyball, which quickly became as much a part of the local lifestyle as surfing. The Beatles were once photographed passing a ball around during a visit to California on tour while even Marilyn Monroe gave it a namecheck; put simply, it was cool.
In the 1960s, President Kennedy attended the first official volleyball event in Sorrento Beach, Los Angeles. California then hosted its first commercially sponsored tournament in 1974, which lead to further professional tournaments and even a sponsored tour in 1980, which eventually turned national.
The popularity of beach volleyball spread to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, where the first international exhibition was hosted in 1986. A year later, the famous Copacabana coastline staged the first international FIVB-sanctioned tournament, which sparked a succession of further competitions all over the world.
©Getty Images
Beach volleyball enjoyed a defining moment in 1994 when it as officially recognised as an Olympic discipline by the IOC. Two years later, in Atlanta, 24 men’s teams and 18 women’s teams competed for Olympic medals on Atlanta Beach in front of sell-out crowds.
©Getty Images
Four years after the overwhelming success of its Olympic debut, beach volleyball became an even bigger hit on Bondi Beach during the Sydney Games. Athletes from USA and Brazil, the two countries that had done so much to develop the sport, dominated the competition, just as they did in Athens in 2004.
By 2008, in Beijing, the event was extended over 14 days of action (it had been six in Atlanta, 10 in Sydney and 12 in Athens). At London 2012, the beach volleyball tournament was played in the shadow of iconic venues such as Big Ben and the London Eye and the players fully lived up to the drama of the occasion. The Americans enjoyed continued success, with American duo Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor winning an incredible third straight Olympic gold in the women’s competition.
©Getty Images
With the focus now shifting to Rio in 2016, there is every reason to expect beach volleyball to enjoy its most spectacular Olympics yet.

President Bach announces widespread changes to IOC Commissions - one third of commission members now women, a 49% increase since he took office.

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31/05/2015

The President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, today announced widespread changes to the composition and function of the IOC commissions for 2015. The changes are a direct result of the reforms stemming from implementation of Olympic Agenda 2020.

The review of the scope and composition of the IOC commissions was one of the 40 recommendations approved by the 127th IOC Session last December in Monaco. The new make-up of the Commissions reflects the philosophy initiated by Olympic Agenda 2020, and will provide a strong support to the IOC Session, the IOC Executive Board and the IOC President in the implementation of the roadmap designed to shape the future of the Olympic Movement. The changes to the function and composition of the Commissions have been undertaken by the IOC President working closely with the IOC Executive Board.
President Bach has significantly increased the number of women nominated to a commission compared to two years ago when he was first elected, with a third (32 percent) of places now taken by women. That is a 49 percent increase since he took office. There are also increases in the numbers of members from Africa and Oceania, as well as an increase in the number of chair persons from the Africa and Asia now accounting for 34 percent.
Please click here for an explanation of the changes to the Commissions.
The commissions now also include more representatives from the different stakeholders of the Olympic Movement and, for the first time, representatives from international organisations such as the United Nations. This shows a clear continuity with the open and inclusive consultation process initiated in the early stages of the discussions on Olympic Agenda 2020.

“These changes are another major step in the implementation of Olympic Agenda 2020, the strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement,” said IOC President Thomas Bach.  “They demonstrate the close dialogue with our stakeholders and society at large, with whom we started this process nearly two years ago. The increase of women’s participation and the broader geographical representation will encourage more inclusive decision making,” he said.
Among the changes, two entirely new commissions have been created: an Olympic Channel Commission, which will ensure that all relevant stakeholders and expertise are consulted throughout the growth and development of the Olympic Channel; and a Communications Commission, which will help to develop strategies to support the promotion of the Olympic values, and the IOC’s vision and mission to a global audience.
Another example of Olympic Agenda 2020 already being implemented is the adoption of recommendations 30 and 31. In line with these recommendations the session in Monaco adopted the new Olympic Charter. It requires the Chair and the members of the new IOC Ethics Commission be elected for the first time by the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, which will take place from 31 July to 3 August.
Further changes have been made with regard to the structure of the Commissions, the working method and the composition. Please click here for full information and composition of the commissions.