IOC: The 126th IOC session including members, including the Athletes' Commission, was held in Sochi before the start of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games.
The 126th IOC session including members, including the Athletes' Commission, was held in Sochi before the start of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games.
IOC considers joint-city bids
GAMES: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is considering a proposal to allow joint cities or joint countries to bid for the right to host the Olympic Games.
The new procedure was part of a paper presented to the 126th Session of the IOC in Sochi, Russia, by Australia’s IOC Vice-President John Coates.
Coates spoke of the escalating cost of bidding for the Games telling the IOC members that bids are costing $70m US.
“The cost of bids concerns us all,” he said. “More creativity is needed. We need to better communicate and promote the economic benefits of bidding and hosting the Games.”
The move if adopted would give smaller countries and smaller cities the opportunity to get involved in the Olympic Games.
At present, joint bids are not allowed under the Olympic Charter.
Australia’s other IOC member, James Tomkins, spoke of the importance of all the athletes celebrating the Games to be in one Olympic Village and he was concerned this would be lost if the Games were hosted in two cities or multi-cities.
The proposal is part of what is called Olympic Agenda 2020, a plan to amass ideas and develop a strategic plan for the Olympic Movement.
Already the new IOC President, Thomas Bach, has allocated more money to the fight against doping as part of the plan.
Olympic Games could get more sports and more athletes
GAMES: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is exploring ways to revolutionise the Games by introducing more sports and more athletes.
The 126th IOC Session in Sochi, Russia, is debating what it called “Agenda 2020” a strategic plan which members will vote on in Monaco in December this year.
Top of the agenda is changes to the sports program. Topics include extending the Games from 17 days of competition to 23 days and introducing more mixed gender sports. Possibly as many as 32 sports.
To introduce more sports the IOC will explore the possibility of rotating athletes out of the Athletes Village once they have finished competition to make way for newcomers.
Members of the IOC Athletes’ Commission were very much in favour of all athletes remaining in the Village for the duration of the Games.
Alex Gilady the IOC member from Israel said the IOC was not limited to 28 sports and 10,500 athletes at the Summer Games.
“We need to look at a better mechanism without throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” he said.
It was argued by another member that introducing more events and therefore more medals “the gold medal loses its shine”.
Another member recommended new sports should be chosen on their “popularity” given the IOC is looking to attract a much larger youth audience.
Bid city visits back on the agenda for the IOC
GAMES: The International Olympic Committee is considering allowing members to visit bid cities, a practise that was scrapped 15 years ago because of a corruption scandal involving the Salt Lake Winter Games.
Under the new proposal put to the 126th IOC Session in Sochi, Russia, visits would be controlled and structured.
The proposal met with a mixed reaction. One member saying “Structured visits are a no brainer”.
The IOC member for Fiji, Doctor Robin Mitchell also supported the re-statement of controlled and organised member visits. “Members don’t get a feel for bid cities from videos. It is important that we reinstate that” he said.
Prince Albert of Monaco opposed re-introducing visits saying it is“very risky to go down that path again”.
