Olympic Highlights 30/05/2023
IOC
PRESIDENT
The IOC has welcomed the reference to sport in the Group of Seven (G7) Leaders’ Statement on Ukraine, which they issued during their summit in Hiroshima (Japan). The statement says that the G7 are “fully respecting the autonomy of sporting organizations” and want to ensure that “Russian and Belarusian athletes are in no way appearing as representatives of their states”. This is fully aligned with the position of the IOC in this respect. IOC President Thomas Bach said: “The IOC warmly welcomes the G7 support for the autonomy of sport and for the IOC’s recommendations on the participation of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport, only as individual, neutral athletes. This commitment to the autonomy of sports organisations comes at a crucial time, when it is threatened by a few governments. Therefore, we are very grateful to the G7 Leaders for their unequivocal statement.” Read the full news release here.
As elder statesman Henry Kissinger, also an IOC Honour Member, celebrates his milestone 100th birthday this week, the IOC President reflects on his relationship with an extraordinary man – and avid sports fan – who has been a friend of the Olympic Movement for 25 years. Read his interview here.
At Olympic House, President Bach discussed the preparations for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028, the international situation and the position of the Olympic Movement with International Canoe Federation (ICF) President Thomas Konietzko.
With IOC Member Paul Tergat, President Bach spoke about a wide range of Olympic topics, including the preparations of refugee athletes for the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
The IOC President received India’s Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra, who is also a member of the IOC Athletes’ Commission. The President thanked and congratulated him on his very successful initiatives in India concerning Olympic education and climate action.
This week, President Bach had a video call with US sprinter Allyson Felix, a seven-time Olympic champion and a member of the IOC Athletes’ Commission. Together they discussed the preparations for the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028 and other Olympic topics. Allyson Felix visited Olympic House, where she signed the Olympians Wall and received her OLY diploma and pin.
The President also had a video call with Christian Schmidt, High Representative of the International Community for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Benjamina Karic, the Mayor of Sarajevo. They discussed the legacy of the Olympic Winter Games Sarajevo 1984 and the upcoming 40-year anniversary of the Games.
OTHER OLYMPIC NEWS
Sport plays a crucial role in building safer communities and combatting youth violence and crime. This was highlighted during a hybrid high-level side event organised by the IOC, in cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on 22 May in Vienna (Austria), as part of the 32nd UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ). The opening remarks were provided by IOC Member Kirsty Coventry, who was the IOC representative at the CCPCJ, and John Brandolino, UNODC Director of the Division of Treaty Affairs. The theme of this year's session was “Enhancing the Functioning of the Criminal Justice System to Ensure Access to Justice and to Realise a Safe and Secure Society”. The event – “Team up against crime: Strengthening the role and contribution of sport in the context of multisectoral partnerships for youth crime prevention” – was hosted with the support of Austria, France, Mexico, the Netherlands and Thailand and was attended by over 170 participants in person and online. Full details here.
The Q&A regarding the participation of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport in international competitions was updated on 24 May. The Q&A addresses the current situation after the IOC issued recommendations for IFs and international sports event organisers on the participation of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport in international competitions, following a request by the Olympic Summit. It replaces the Q&A that was first published in early February and had been regularly updated since. Read the Q&A here.
The first collaborative feature documentary between the IOC and Netflix, which chronicles the incredible journey of the USA's basketball team at the Olympic Games Beijing 2008, has been recognised with the Sports Emmy Award in the Outstanding Long Documentary category. In addition, the wider Olympic Movement has also been recognised, with NBC Universal winning the Outstanding Live Special category as well as three technical awards for its coverage of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, for which Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) was the host broadcaster. Full news release here.
The Olympic Studies Centre (OSC) has launched the Olympic World Library (OWL) network, welcoming the Spanish Olympic Committee as its first partner. This integration marks an important milestone for the OSC, which aims to widen the visibility of the OWL as the go-to reference for Olympic-related literature, and further support education, research and the dissemination of Olympic knowledge around the world. Via the OWL, users can freely access the bibliographic descriptions and digital documents of all the partners. As the first partner, the Spanish Olympic Committee, via its Royal Spanish Olympic Academy, notes that for this launch, one of its priorities is to digitise and make available the writings of Conrado Durántez, founder and former President of the Academy. More info here. Institutions interested in learning more about the OWL Network can contact the OSC at studies.centre@olympic.org.
INTERNATIONAL FEDERATIONS
SUMMER IFS
International Equestrian Federation (FEI)
Qualifications in equestrian for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 are in full swing. The latest FEI designated eventing Olympic qualification event, held in Baborówko (Poland) on 20 and 21 May, was open to nations from Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Qualifications in eventing, dressage and jumping will continue in the coming weeks, with events scheduled to take place in Millstreet (Ireland), Budapest (Hungary), Valkenswaard (the Netherlands) and Prague (Czechia), prior to the European Championships in August and September, and the Pan American Games in October, among others. More info at www.fei.org.
World Athletics
The World Athletics Council has confirmed the competition dates for three World Athletics Series events. The World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya (Türkiye) will be held on 20 and 21 April 2024. The World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing (China) will take place from 21 to 23 March 2025. And the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Torun (Poland) will be held from 20 to 22 March 2026. The Council also approved the timetable for next year’s World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow (Scotland) and a series of competition changes, to be introduced starting at the Budapest 23 World Athletics Championships. Full details here. In addition, World Athletics intends to introduce the new term “short track” to replace the current term “indoor” to describe events and performances that are set on a 200m track, traditionally staged indoors. More details here.
World Rugby
To mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, the France 2023 Organising Committee presented its “Rugby is my Pride” programme, which shines a light on measures to fight against all forms of LGBTQIA+ discrimination during the France 2023 Rugby World Cup and to use rugby as an inclusion tool towards these communities. With the support of World Rugby, the French Government, the Fédération Française de Rugby (FFR) and the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR), the France 2023 Organising Committee has built a programme centred on the values of solidarity and team spirit, and embodied by the practice of rugby. Full details here.
NATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEES
Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC)
The HOC hosted the Mid-Term Conference for the GAMES project with the theme “National Olympic Committees promote equal leadership in sport”, which was organised by the HOC Gender Equality Committee, chaired by Vassiliki Millousi. Participants were from eight NOCs (Belgium, Czechia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, North Macedonia and Türkiye) and experts in the field of gender equality, including the European Olympic Committees (EOC) Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Commission Chair, and Vice-President of the British Olympic Association, Annamarie Phelps. The Conference was opened by HOC and EOC President and IOC Member Spyros Capralos. The GAMES project is funded by the European Union and has the main objective of promoting integrity and good governance in sport by supporting structural and cultural changes related to gender equality in leadership and decision-making positions within NOCs and sports federation members. Full details here.
The Olympic Committee of Israel
As part of the NOC’s strategy to promote the Olympic values, the Education Department, together with the Athletes’ Commission, is leading a series of community-involvement and social-responsibility initiatives. Among these, the NOC has initiated collaboration with Latet, the largest NGO in Israel that combats poverty and food insecurity in the country. This cooperation started with Latet's “Nutritional Security” programme, which aims to reduce food insecurity among families and individuals living in severe poverty by salvaging, collecting and distributing food. The first stage took place before Passover, when students of the Olympic Class, a programme led by the NOC and Olympic medallist Arik Ze’evi, mobilised for 10 days of collecting food from customers in a supermarket in Tel Aviv. The second stage involved over 70 athletes and coaches, including Olympic medallists Yael Arad, who is also the NOC President, Peter Paltchik and Shahar Zubari, together with the NOC CEO Gili Lustig and staff members, who at the NGO’s logistics centre packed food packages for families living in food insecurity. More info at www.olympicsil.co.il.
Slovakia Olympic and Sports Committee
On 23 May, the National Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Slovakia and the Slovak Olympic and Sports Committee signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen collaboration with the Olympic Movement and sports associations in Slovakia. The MoU was signed at the NOC headquarters by the Head of the UNHCR National Office in Slovakia, Danijela Popovic-Efendic, and NOC President Anton Siekel. The partnership aims to expand the use of sport and strengthen engagement with sports associations and sports stakeholders to benefit refugees and other forcibly displaced people through participation in sport at all levels. This is also the first MoU between UNHCR and an NOC in Europe. More info here at www.olympic.sk.
Slovenia Olympic Committee
The NOC President, Franjo Bobinac, signed a lease agreement for the location that will host Slovenia House during the Olympic Games Paris 2024. Slovenia House will be set up in La Villette Park, which will be logistically very well connected to the Olympic Village and will also play host to a number of Olympic teams, including the French one. The goal of the House project is to present Slovenia: its economy, tourism, agriculture, gastronomy, science and other areas. During the Olympic Games, these will be presented in association with sport, partners and fans from around the world. On signing the lease, the NOC President recalled that 2024 will be the 100th anniversary of Leon Štukelj winning the Olympic gold medal in gymnastics at the Paris 1924 Games. More details here at www.olympic.si.
ORGANISING COMMITTEES FOR THE OLYMPIC GAMES
PARIS 2024
With 14 months to go until the Opening Ceremony, Paris 2024 has already sold more than 70 per cent of the 10 million tickets available for the Olympic Games (6.8 million). The second phase of ticket sales for the Olympic Games Paris 2024, which closed on 19 May, was an unprecedented success. It set new sales records, with more than one million tickets snapped up in only 36 hours. At the end of this phase, 1.89 million tickets had been sold in just over a week for all 767 Games sessions. Ticket sales for the Paralympic Games will open on 9 October 2023. Full news release here. On 23 May, marking the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, the Fier-Play Association and Paris 2024 officially confirmed the creation of the 24th Pride House, which will be in operation throughout the Olympic and Paralympic Games period in Paris. Full info here.
RECOGNISED ORGANISATIONS
Association of the National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA)
To mark Africa Day on 25 May, the ANOCA President, IOC Member Mustapha Berraf, addressed a message to the African sports and Olympic community. Read here the full text of the message, in which he underlines: “25 May brings to mind two very powerful things about sport: the power of solidarity and the power of peace. This is just what is needed to make our continent a haven of peace.”
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)
Anti-doping legislation, IT innovation around ADAMS and managing whereabouts failures will be the focus of WADA webinars in June 2023. Discover the webinar schedule here.