Olympic Highlights 17/06/2019
IOC ACTIVITIES
PRESIDENT
At The Olympic Museum, IOC President Thomas Bach welcomed a Bulgarian NOC delegation, led by NOC President and Olympic champion Stefka Kostadinova, whose high jump world record of 2.09 metres has stood since 1987. The preparations for the next Olympic Games were addressed, as was a possible candidature by Bulgaria to organise the Youth Olympic Games 2024.
Also at The Olympic Museum, President Bach welcomed the two Captains Regent of San Marino, Michele Muratori and Nicola Selva – the Heads of State of the country – who were accompanied by the President of the NOC of San Marino, Gian Primo Giardi. The next editions of Olympic Games and the NOC’s 60th anniversary celebrations in December were the main topics discussed.
The IOC President met the Russian NOC President, Stanislav Pozdnyakov. The cooperation with the NOC and topics of mutual interest were discussed.
President Bach took part in the inauguration of the new Transports lausannois Olympic bus route named ‘Parcours olympique’, which links Olympic House to The Olympic Museum, stopping by several points of interest. The ceremony was held in the presence of Lausanne Mayor Grégoire Junod, President of the Vaud Council of State Nuria Gorrite, President of the Organising Committee for the Winter Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020 Virginie Faivre, and Director of Lausanne Public Transport Michel Joye.
On 16 June, the IOC President was in s'Hertogenbosch near Amsterdam (Netherlands), where he attended the recurve finals at the World Archery Championships. He was welcomed and accompanied by World Archery President and IOC Vice-President Uğur Erdener. He also met 20 archery Olympians from the Olympic Games Munich 1972 to Rio 2016.
Commissions
Following the second Coordination Commission meeting for Paris 2024, the IOC’s Coordination Commission was impressed with Paris’ extensive plans to create an Olympic Games for all of France. “Creating a creative and innovative Olympic Games experience that benefits everyone is at the core of Paris 2024’s mission,” said IOC Coordination Commission Chair Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant. Meeting in Marseille, which will host the sailing and football competitions, the Commission visited the proposed venues for the two sports, stopping to see both the marina and Velodrome Stadium. The essence of urban sport was on full display on the first day of the Coordination Commission visit, with basketball, BMX, breaking, skateboarding, and sport climbing demonstrations. At the end of June, the IOC Session will vote on the provisional inclusion of breaking, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing on the 2024 Olympic programme. During the meetings, the Organising Committee presented to the IOC and IPC the impressive progress that has made on governance topics, engagement plans, marketing programmes and more. Full news release here.
OTHER OLYMPIC NEWS
Olympic House, the new headquarters of the IOC, has received three of the highest sustainable building certifications. It has therefore become one of the most sustainable buildings in the world. One of the three certifications is LEED Platinum, the highest certification level of the international LEED green building programme. According to the US Green Building Council (USGBC), the organisation that developed LEED, Olympic House has received the most points (93) of any LEED v4-certified new construction project to date. Full news release here.
The IOC has announced a collaboration with Tokyo-based Studio Ponoc to create an animated short film inspired by the Olympic values, to be released next year in the lead-up to the Olympic Games that will be held in Tokyo from 24 July to 9 August 2020. The project aims to share Olympic messages of hope and peace with a broad international audience, particularly young people, and to forge a powerful artistic legacy for animation fans across the globe. Full news release here.
The IOC has announced a collaboration with Tokyo-based Studio Ponoc to create an animated short film inspired by the Olympic values, to be released next year in the lead-up to the Olympic Games that will be held in Tokyo from 24 July to 9 August 2020. The project aims to share Olympic messages of hope and peace with a broad international audience, particularly young people, and to forge a powerful artistic legacy for animation fans across the globe. Full news release here.
Starting 13 June, the Olympic Channel section will be available on supersport.com, offering fans Olympic-themed programming from across the globe, with an emphasis on their favourite local athletes, teams and sports under the “Olympic Channel” brand. The new digital presence follows the autumn 2018 launch of Olympic Channel programming blocks on SuperSport in support of its media rights agreement with the IOC for the Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games through 2024, which also includes the launch of a 24/7 linear Olympic Channel prior to Tokyo 2020. The agreement includes distribtion in 45 territories in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. Full news release here.
In the framework of the retesting of samples taken during the Olympic Games London 2012, the IOC announced on 12 June that an athlete had been disqualified from these Games. The athlete in question is Jevgenij Shuklin of Lithuania, competing in the men’s C-1 200m canoe sprint event in which he ranked second and was awarded the silver medal. The IOC has delegated the selecting of samples to be reanalysed and the results management to the International Testing Agency (ITA). Full news release here.
international sportS FEDERATIONS
SUMMER IFS
Carol Callan (photo) was elected as President of FIBA Americas for the 2019-2023 term by the General Assembly of the member federations in Miami (USA). Callan becomes the first woman ever to be elected President of a FIBA Zone. She is also now the fourth elected member of the Central Board of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) for 2019-2023 cycle. Named USA Basketball Women's National Team director in October 1996, she also serves on the FIBA and FIBA Americas Women's Commissions, the WBCA Board of Directors and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame Board of Directors. More info here.
The International Judo Federation (IJF) and Vietnam signed two agreements during a ceremony held in Budapest (Hungary) on 11 June. IJF President Marius L. Vizer (centre), Vietnam Sports Administration Chairman Vuong Bich Thang (left) and Judo Federation of Vietnam President Nguyen Manh Hung (right) signed an MoU to promote and develop judo in Vietnam and to support their national team to achieve high results at continental and international competitions. They also signed a Judo in Schools agreement, with the IJF’s Programme set to be introduced into 15 schools, the long-term aim to produce future national players and Olympic competitors for Vietnam. More info here.
The International Swimming Federation (FINA) held a “FINA Swim Sport Entertainment” meeting in Indianapolis (USA), which hosted the final leg of the FINA Champions Swim Series 2019. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss in detail how to further improve and develop swimming to make it an attractive and entertaining product that drives fans, sponsors and spectators’ engagement in the long run. The meeting was attended by 20 athletes from various nations (Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, Ukraine and USA), and FINA Athletes’ Committee members Stavroula Kozompoli and Ryan Pini. Also present were FINA Executive Director Cornel Marculescu, FINA Vice-President Dale Neuburger, FINA Technical Swimming Committee Chairwoman Carol Zaleski and Honorary Secretary Haoran Yuan, together with USA Swimming senior management. More details here.
NATIONAL Olympic COMMITTEES
The Azerbaijan NOC organised a "Sport-Health, Friendship, Unity" art contest dedicated to the 15th European Summer Youth Olympic Festival in the framework of the Olympic Culture and Education Programme. The award ceremony was held in the Children and Youth Development Centre No. 3 in Baku on 14 June. The event was attended by NOC Vice-President Chingiz Huseynzade, NOC Deputy Secretary General Azer Aliyev and Deputy Minister of Education Firudin Gurbanov, who also visited the exhibition dedicated to the works. The exhibition included 156 works from children between 6 and 14 years old from 45 schools. Gifts and diplomas from the organising committee were presented to 34 contestants. More info at www.noc-aze.org.
The city of Villajoyosa, in the province of Alicante, hosted Olympic Day on 8 June. Organised jointly by the Spanish NOC and the Fundación Trinidad Alfonso, it brought together 2,000 young athletes, who took part in various sports under the watch of around 100 monitors. NOC President Alejandro Blanco was also present, as were numerous Olympians. More info here.
In addition, the Spanish NOC and the Autonomous Community of Madrid have renewed their cooperation agreement to implement the “All Olympic” (“Todos Olímpicos”) campaign among Madrid’s educational centres. The agreement was signed on 13 June by Alejandro Blanco and the Director General of the Sports Department of the Community, Javier Orcaray. More details here.
Prior to their departure for the first African Beach Games in Sal (Cape Verde), Ghana’s athletes were presented with a Worldwide Olympic Partner Toyota-branded kit by Chef de Mission Stephen Asante Bekoe. The ceremony took place at the headquarters of the Ghana Olympic Committee, the Olympic House, in Accra. Toyota Ghana donated 50 tracksuits, 50 baseball caps and 50 polo shirts. The African Beach Games are being organised from 14 to 23 June. More info here.
A meeting was recently held at the Venezuelan Olympic Academy for representatives of the various sports federations responsible for producing the regulations for women in sport commissions in their federations. The Academy’s Secretary, who is also Secretary General of the Venezuelan NOC, Élida Párraga, led the discussions, during which the participants defined the mission, vision and objectives of such commissions, and provided elements for drafting commission rules, which will be adapted by each federation in line with their culture and structure.
Organising Committees for the Olympic Games
Tokyo 2020
Podiums for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 medal award ceremonies to be manufactured using recycled plastic contributed by the public and recovered from the oceans in an initiative bringing together Worldwide Olympic Partner Procter & Gamble (P&G) and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee. The new sustainability project kicks off in Tokyo on 13 June, hot on the heels of Worldwide Environment Day 2019 and the one-year anniversary of the IOC joining UN Environment’s #CleanSeas, an initiative also supported by P&G. Full news release here.
RECOGNISED Organisations
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) recently held workshops with the Organising Committee for the Paralympic Games Los Angeles 2028 and various stakeholders to kickstart preparations for America’s next Paralympic Games. Workshops were held in New York and Los Angeles with leaders from LA 2028, the US Olympic Committee (USOC), NBC and US Olympic and Paralympic Properties (USOPP) to provide a greater understanding of the IPC, the evolution of the Paralympic Games and the impact the 2028 Paralympic Games will have on driving social inclusion in the US. More details here.