Qualification System Principles for Gangwon 2024 and Milano Cortina 2026 discussed by IOC Executive Board on first day of meeting
The Qualification System Principles (QSP) for the Winter Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024 and the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 were on the agenda today on the first of the two-day International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board (EB) meeting at Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland, which some EB members joined remotely.
The QSP are designed to help the International Federations (IFs) in the development of their individual qualification systems and to be consistently applied across all sports. According to the Olympic Charter, each IF needs to establish its sport’s rules for participation in the Olympic Games, including qualification criteria.
Milano Cortina 2026
The principles for Milano Cortina 2026 were approved by the IOC EB today and can be found here.
Established to give the best athletes in the world a fair opportunity to participate at the Olympic Games, the QSP secure universal representation within and equal access to qualification events, with a minimum number of opportunities to qualify and a maximum timeframe of two years for the qualification events to happen.
The individual sport and discipline qualification systems will be submitted to the IOC Executive Board for approval by no later than September 2023, but Milano Cortina 2026 is already set to become the most gender-balanced Olympic Winter Games in history. The sports and event programme will include a record number of women’s events, and the edition will be the most gender-balanced Olympic Winter Games to date, with 47 per cent female participation.
Gangwon 2024
In regard to Gangwon 2024, the Qualification System Principles were approved by the IOC EB in October 2021, but some amendments were agreed during today’s meeting, which also saw the approval of individual qualification systems per discipline for ice hockey (3-on-3 tournament), biathlon, skating, skiing and snowboarding, and bobsleigh and skeleton.
The qualification systems for ice hockey (6-team tournament), luge and curling had already been approved by the IOC EB (12 November 2021 and 24 June 2022, respectively).
All qualification systems reflect the event programme approved by the IOC EB in February 2021.
The full document, including the changes to the QSP, can be found here.
Gangwon 2024 will ensure 50 per cent male and female participation and an equal number of men’s and women’s events, following on from the full gender equality already achieved for Lausanne 2020.
Change of nationality
The IOC EB also approved a change of nationality for one athlete, in view of the Olympic Games Paris 2024:
- Dominick Cunningham – gymnastics – from Great Britain to Ireland.
The EB granted the requested exemption to the three-year waiting period, with the prior agreement from the International Federation and National Olympic Committees concerned, in accordance with BLR 2 to Rule 41 of the Olympic Charter.
Minute of silence
IOC President Thomas Bach opened the IOC Executive Board meeting by asking for a minute of silence to honour the memory of the 11 Israeli victims and the German policeman who lost their lives in the terrorist attack at the Olympic Games Munich 1972.
He also asked the EB members to include in their thoughts the memory of IOC Honorary Members Patrick Chamunda and Ottavio Cinquanta, who recently passed away.
On Monday 5 September, the IOC President was one of the speakers at a ceremony in Germany that marked the 50th anniversary of the attack, which he called the “darkest day in Olympic history”.