Olympic Highlights 24/05/2023
IOC
PRESIDENT
IOC President Thomas Bach was in Bulgaria on Wednesday 17 May, to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the NOC. Welcomed by the President of the NOC, Olympic Champion Stefka Kostadinova, he joined hundreds of invited guests at a celebration of the 100th anniversary in the national capital, Sofia. There, they were joined by dozens of athletes and Bulgarian Olympians who demonstrated the success of Bulgaria in Olympic Competition. Bulgaria was one of the nations represented in the very first Olympic Games in 1896.
President Bach congratulated the Bulgarian NOC for the 230 medals it had won in its history. He told them that, per capita with such a medal haul, “this puts you among the leading Olympic nations in the world.”
Earlier, President Bach was welcomed by the President of the Bulgarian Republic, Rumen Radev, who is a strong supporter of the Olympic Movement. President Radev told President Bach, “In these turbulent times Olympic Sport is decisive in the promotion of peace, understanding, and in conflict resolution, and can convince people to take part in peaceful competition on the sports stage not on the battlefield.” He continued, “with the geopolitical situation as it is, we support the mission of sport and especially Olympic Sport to bring the entire world together in peaceful competition, and we fully support the IOC in all the steps it is taking.” President Bach welcomed his comments and added, “in these times, sport is the ‘glue’ that binds society together. Athletes must be able to compete and must be able to compete always against the best athletes in the world in fair competition.” The leaders also discussed gender parity and the important role that sport can play in integrating young people into society. For this to happen, they both agreed that government needs to work together with autonomous sports organisations.
On Thursday 18 May, President Bach validated a special postage stamp to mark the celebration of the Bulgarian NOC at the Central Post Office. Before leaving he also had time to visit the Olympic Educational and Studies Centre.
IOC Executive Board member and President of United World Wrestling (UWW) Nenad Lalovic and IOC Member and President of the European Olympic Committees (EOC) Spyros Capralos were also present in Sofia.
Earlier at Olympic House, the IOC President welcomed a delegation from the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee, led by its President, Prince Abdulaziz Bin Turki Alfaisa Alsaud. Topics discussed included the preparations for the upcoming Olympic Games, the international situation and the position of the Olympic Movement.
With Spanish NOC President Alejandro Blanco, President Bach discussed the Spanish athletes’ preparations for the upcoming editions of the Olympic Games, the international situation and the position of the Olympic Movement.
Prior to this, President Bach and Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) President Francesco Ricci Bitti discussed the upcoming editions of the Olympic Games, the international situation and the position of the Olympic Movement. They also spoke about the celebrations to mark ASOIF’s 40th anniversary, which will take place in Lausanne at the end of May.
The President held a phone conversation with Casey Wasserman, Chairperson of the Organising Committee for the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028. Their discussion mainly focused on the Games preparations, the international situation and the position of the Olympic Movement.
With IOC Honorary Member Sam Ramsamy, President Bach spoke about a wide range of Olympic topics, including the international situation and the position of the Olympic Movement.
The IOC President met Thomas Berlemann, Chairman of the Board of Deutscher Sporthilfe, a German sports development organisation.
The IOC President presented an OLY diploma and pin to Germany’s Ricarda Funk and Great Britain’s Annie Vernon and Phelan Hill at Olympic House. Funk won gold in the canoe slalom (K1) at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Hill became an Olympic rowing champion in Rio (men’s eight), having claimed bronze at London 2012. His compatriot Vernon won a rowing silver medal (quadruple sculls) at the Olympic Games Beijing 2008. All three athletes signed the Olympians Wall.
The IOC President welcomed the members of the Rotary Club of his home town Tauberbischofsheim and took them round Olympic House before a visit to The Olympic Museum. Among the members were Matthias Behr, his fellow gold medal-winning team-mate from the Olympic Games Montreal 1976 and a three-time Olympic silver medallist (Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988), and four other fencing Olympians: Behr’s wife, Zita Funkenhauser, and Sabine Bau, both of whom were members of the foil team that won gold at the Olympic Games Seoul 1988; and also Steffen Wiesinger and Susanne Koenig, who took part in Barcelona 1992/Atlanta 1996 and Athens 2004 respectively. President Bach presented them with an OLY diploma and pin, and they signed the Olympians Wall together.
Other Olympic news
Nearly 50 representatives from 37 IFs came together at Olympic House on 16 May, for a workshop to share information and exchange knowledge on how to prevent competition manipulation at sports competitions. Organised by the Olympic Movement Unit on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions (OM Unit PMC), the meeting focused on the three main pillars of the Unit’s strategy: regulation and legislation, awareness-raising and capacity-building, and intelligence and investigations. The IFs also received an update on the upcoming PMC activities in the lead-up to Paris 2024. Full news release here.
To mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, which is celebrated globally on 17 May, IOC Young Leader Javier Raya spoke about the role that sport can play in promoting inclusion, and reflected on his own experience as an openly gay athlete. Raya competed at the highest level of international figure skating for over 15 years, taking to the ice at the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014, as well as at numerous World and European Championships. Read his interview here.
The World Health Organization (WHO)’s Walk the Talk: Health for All Challenge has returned for its fourth edition, with athletes, local sports clubs and the local community coming together in Geneva on 21 May. Just a month ahead of Olympic Day, which will also encourage the world to move on 23 June, the WHO event is aimed at promoting solidarity, and the physical and mental health benefits of exercise. Coinciding with the WHO’s 75th anniversary year, the fourth edition of Walk the Talk has invited people of all ages and abilities to run or walk a 3km or 4.2km route. Participants got moving in the early morning from the United Nations (UN) Office in Geneva, also known as the Palace of Nations. The event included a running master class led by Ethiopia’s double Olympic champion, Derartu Tulu, and Kenya’s two-time Olympic silver medallist, IOC Member Paul Tergat. Full news release here.
INTERNATIONAL FEDERATIONS
SUMMER IFS
International Basketball Federation (FIBA)
On 13 May in Miami, USA, the Zone Assembly of FIBA in the Americas elected Fabián Borro as its new President and re-elected Usie Richards as Treasurer. Borro, President of the Argentine Basketball Federation, also becomes a member of the FIBA Central Board for the 2023-2027 term. A FIBA delegation led by its President, Hamane Niang, was present at the Assembly. More details here.
World Athletics
World Athletics received International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) 20121 certification for its Sustainable Event Management System (SEMS), which has been developed to embed sustainability into events across the sport. The SEMS, which provides detailed guidance in 15 key areas of event planning and delivery, was introduced in November 2021, alongside the Athletics for a Better World (ABW) Standard, an evaluation that measures and scores an event’s achievement in sustainable delivery in alignment with the World Athletics Sustainability Strategy. Full details here. Discover here the seven talented people from four different continents who have been selected by World Athletics through its Content Creator Programme. These creatives will produce content for World Athletics’ TikTok, YouTube and Instagram platforms in the coming months, in the lead-up to and during the Budapest 23 World Athletics Championships.
NATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEES
Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee (CTOC)
The CTOC and Palau NOC (PNOC) have reaffirmed their commitment to sports exchange and collaboration by signing Bilateral Cooperation Agreements. The signing ceremony was held on 15 May with CTOC President Hong-Dow Lin and PNOC President Frank Kyota in attendance. The CTOC has successfully signed sports exchange agreements with around 40 NOCs across five continents since 1979. In 2017, the CTOC and PNOC signed their first cooperation agreement. This year’s agreement encompasses a wide range of areas for collaboration, including sports exchange, staff exchange, medical science, anti-doping initiatives and the development of National Olympic Academies. Baklai Temengil, the PNOC Secretary General and an IOC Member, was a keynote lecturer at the 2023 International Sports Affairs Training Course (ISATC) hosted recently by the CTOC. More info at www.tpenoc.net.
Dominican Republic NOC
The Dominican Republic delegation for the upcoming Central American and Caribbean Games already includes 686 athletes. The information was given by the NOC’s Technical Director, Juan Antonio Febles, at a briefing with national sports federations. The meeting, held at the NOC headquarters, was also attended by NOC President Garibaldy Bautista and Chef de Mission José Miguel Robiou. The Central American and Caribbean Games will be held in El Salvador from 23 June to 8 July 2023. More details at www.colimdo.org.
Finnish Olympic Committee
Finnish Olympic champion and cross country-skiing pioneer Siiri Rantanen died on 5 May, aged 98. She had been Finland’s oldest living Olympian. Rantanen took part in the first-ever women’s Olympic cross-country skiing competition at the Olympic Winter Games Oslo 1952, where she won the 10km bronze medal. Four years later, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, she became an Olympic champion as part of the Finnish 3x5km relay team. Her third Olympic medal, another bronze, also came in the relay event, at the Squaw Valley 1960 Games. Rantanen was named Finnish Sports Personality of the Year in the women’s category several times, and in 2009 she received Finnish sport’s highest honour, the Great Cross of Merit for Finnish Sports Culture. More info here on the NOC website.
Moroccan NOC (CNOM)
The CNOM organised Olympic visits for pupils from 12 state schools on 15, 16 and 18 May in Khémisset, Salé and Sidi Slimane. The aim was, among other things, to raise awareness among Moroccan young people about the importance of playing sport in all its forms. In addition, on 18 May the CNOM arranged a meeting for athlete scholarship-holders in preparation for the Olympic Games Paris 2024. More info at www.cnom.org.ma.
Spanish Olympic Committee
The Spanish NOC and the Qatari NOC have renewed their memorandum of understanding, which has been in force since 2011. The MoU was signed by the two NOC presidents, Alejandro Blanco and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, at a ceremony in Doha, which recently hosted the World Judo Championships. Under the terms of the MoU, the two NOCs have, among other things, committed to furthering cooperation in areas such as sharing best practices related to high-level athlete training programmes, exchanging information around the staging of international events, developing refugee athlete programmes and organising training camps in the two countries. Full details here.
ORGANISING COMMITTEES FOR THE OLYMPIC GAMES
PARIS 2024
Launched on 11 May 2023, the second ticketing phase for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 is generating huge interest and excitement among Olympic fans in France and across the world, with over four million people registering for the draw, and more than one million tickets sold in the first two days. In total, 10 million tickets will be on sale across all the phases, with 80 per cent sold directly to the general public. One million of these tickets are priced at just EUR 24, and almost half are priced at EUR 50 or less, reflecting Paris 2024’s commitment to hosting accessible and affordable Games, in line with its “Games Wide Open” slogan. Read the full news release here. Olympic fans can now access special hospitality packages for the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony, which are available on the dedicated Paris 2024 hospitality website. On Location, the official hospitality provider for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, has designed the packages to enhance the event and provide a truly unforgettable hospitality experience, allowing guests to witness the action from iconic Paris landmarks. In addition to the Opening Ceremony packages, corporate and public hospitality packages for the Games competitions and Closing Ceremony are also available. Read the full news release here.
MILANO CORTINA 2026
Celebrations to mark 1,000 days to go until the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 took place across the host region on 13 May, with local youth taking centre stage, as excitement continues to build throughout Italy. In Milan, more than 10,000 young people gathered at the Arena-Brera for the grand final of the “Trofei di Milano 2023” – an interschool event combining education, culture and sport. The initiative forms part of the Organising Committee’s Generation 2026 commitment, which aims to engage Italian youth in sport in the build-up to the Games, with the 2023 edition reaching 41,965 students from 98 schools. Celebrations also took place in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Bormio, Livigno and Val di Fiemme, as you can read about here.
RECOGNISED ORGANISATIONS
European Olympic Committees (EOC)
During its Annual Seminar held on 12 and 13 May in Paris (France), the EOC awarded its Piotr Nurowski Prize, which honours up-and-coming young athletes. Slovakia’s young ice hockey star Nela Lopusanova was crowned the winner of the eighth winter edition of the prize. She received the distinction from the EOC President, IOC Member Spyros Capralos. More info here.
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)
WADA has published professional standards aimed at improving the level of knowledge, skills and competencies of the global anti-doping Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) workforce. Full details here. Meeting virtually in April, WADA’s Strategic Testing Expert Advisory Group discussed a number of enhancements to the Global Anti-Doping Programme. Find out more here.