London Olympic Highlights of the Week

IOC Announces Olympic Highlights of the Week

This week, IOC President Jacques Rogge was in Quebec City (Canada) for the IOC Executive Board (EB) meeting and the 10th SportAccord Convention.

(PRWEB) May 27, 2012

This week, IOC President Jacques Rogge was in Quebec City (Canada) for the IOC Executive Board (EB) meeting and the 10th SportAccord Convention.

On 22 May, he attended a large charity event organised by the Canadian NOC and aimed at raising funds to support young Canadian athletes. The 4,100 guests included the Premier of Quebec, Jean Charest, whom he met afterwards, the President of the Canadian NOC, Marcel Aubut, the mayor of Quebec City, Regis Labeaume, and more than 100 Canadian athletes.

A few hours later, he addressed the delegates of the SportAccord Convention, chaired by IOC Honorary Member Hein Verbruggen, at the official opening ceremony.

The following day, President Rogge attended the joint meetings of the EB and the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), then the Association of the International Olympic Winter Sports Federations (AIOWF), before chairing the EB’s discussions.

The EB took a number of decisions at its meetings from 23 to 25 May. Three candidate cities were selected from those bidding to host the 2020 Olympic Games: Istanbul (Turkey), Tokyo (Japan) and Madrid (Spain).

The EB agenda also included the presentation of reports by the chairmen of the Coordination Commissions for forthcoming Games: Denis Oswald for London 2012, Jean-Claude Killy for Sochi 2014, Nawal El Moutawakel for Rio 2016 and Gunilla Lindberg for PyeongChang 2018. The EB was also updated on the state of preparations for the 2012 and 2018 Games by the chairmen of their respective organising committees, Sebastian Coe and Jin Sun Kim. The EB also noted the preparations for the forthcoming editions of the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing in 2014 and Lillehammer in 2016, as well as a report on the YOG held in Innsbruck in January 2012.

The EB also heard a report on the situation of certain NOCs.

A full report on the EB meetings in Quebec City can be found at http://www.olympic.org (“News” section).

During his stay in Quebec, President Rogge attended a reception hosted by the President of the Quebec National Assembly, Jacques Chagnon. He also met Michaelle Jean, Grand Témoin de la Francophonie for the Games in London, who presented him with the agreement between the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) and the London Games Organising Committee (LOCOG). He also met the President and Chief Executive of the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (CISS), Craig Crowley and Mark Cooper respectively.

MEMBERS
Francesco Ricci Bitti was elected President of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) at its General Assembly in Quebec City. President of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), he will replace Denis Oswald as ASOIF President on 1 January 2013.

Ching-Kuo Wu has been nominated by the ASOIF for election to the IOC Executive Board, as representative of the summer IFs.

René Fasel, AIOWF representative, was nominated for election to the IOC Executive Board as representative of the winter IFs.

Irena Szewinska, six-times Olympic medallist, is the latest athletics legend to be named as a member of the Hall of Fame of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). She joins the other 23 inaugural members who will be inducted during the IAAF Centenary Gala in Barcelona (Spain) on 24 November 2012).

The President of the Organising Committee of the 2016 Games in Rio, Carlos Arthur Nuzman has received the Personality of the Year Award, presented by the Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and the Brazilian Embassy in London. The other winner was the LOCOG chairman, Sebastian Coe. These awards honour two leaders who have been particularly instrumental in forging closer ties between Brazil and the United Kingdom.

Lydia Nsekera was recently co-opted on to the Executive Committee of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). This decision will be ratified by the FIFA Congress. President of the Burundi Football Association, she is a member of the FIFA Committee for Women’s Football and the FIFA Women’s World Cup, and of the FIFA Organising Committee for the Olympic Football Tournaments.

OTHER NEWS
On 24 May, the IOC and the United States NOC announced the signature of a new revenue-sharing agreement. This agreement will govern the financial relationship between the two organisations for 20 years, beginning in 2020.

INTERNATIONAL SPORTS FEDERATIONS
SUMMER IFS
In order to strengthen its commercial organisation and activities, the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) has established its own subsidiary, FIBA Media & Marketing Services SA. This affiliate will operate from the FIBA offices in Geneva (Switzerland) and will concentrate on the development, management and delivery of all of FIBA’s media, marketing and event activities.

Training centre for the International Cycling Union (UCI), the World Cycling Centre (WCC) in Aigle (Switzerland) recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. Labelled as an “Olympic Training Centre” by the IOC, the WCC has welcomed some 571 athletes from 118 different countries. These trainees have won two Olympic titles and 32 World Championship titles. The WCC also makes its facilities available to national federations and individual athletes preparing for international competitions.

Meeting in St Petersburg (Russian Federation) on 18 and 19 May, the Council of the International GymnasticsFederation (FIG) took a number of decisions, including the provisional admission of the federation of Benin (final decision to be taken by the General Assembly) and the appointment of the Norwegian federation and the city of Vestfold as hosts of the 3rd edition of the World Gym for Life Challenge in July 2017.

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) and the 2012 Olympic Games Organising Committee have unveiled the Olympic hockey competition schedule. You can see which teams will play each other in the preliminary rounds of the men’s and women’s tournaments by visiting http://www.fih.ch

The International Judo Federation (IJF) informs us that, in a few weeks’ time, its African Olympic Training Centre in Algiers (Algeria) will temporarily close its doors due to the London Games. Over the past two years or so, more than 60 athletes from 26 African countries have visited the centre, including ten judoka who have qualified for London 2012.

The Council of the International Rugby Board (IRB) has approved the application from the American Samoa Rugby Football Union (ASRFU) to become a full member and that from the United Arab Emirates Rugby Association (UAERA) for associate membership. The IRB now has 98 full members and 20 associate members.

NATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEES
This year, the Brazilian NOC will celebrate Olympic Day in the five regions of the country. On 15 May, the city of Serra, in the state of Espírito Santo, hosted a number of special events. Pupils and teachers from local schools took part in sports, cultural and educational activities. Celebrations will also be held in Amapá, Bahia, Goiás, Rio Grande do Sul and Rio de Janeiro. The Olympic Day Run on 23 June will take place in São Paulo. In Rio, there will be workshops for schoolchildren, talks by Olympic athletes, etc.

With 66 days to go until the start of the London Games, the British NOC organised its final Team Leader Workshop in Stratford. Led by Andy Hunt, Chef de Mission of the London 2012 delegation, the workshop was held at Team GB House and included a visit to the Olympic Village. More than 150 people - team leaders, medical staff and press officers from all 26 Olympic sports – took part.

The Italian team uniform for the London Games was officially unveiled in Milan on 10 May. The launch was attended by the President of the Italian NOC, Giovanni Petrucci, the Secretary General and Chef de Mission of the Italian team in London, Raffaele Pagnozzi, and the internationally renowned fashion designer Giorgio Armani, who designed the uniform. Fifteen Olympic champions paraded with the uniform.

Under the patronage of HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein, NOC President and IOC member, the Jordanian NOC held a ceremony in honour of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games delegations in Amman on 16 May. Held at the residence of the British Ambassador, Peter Millett, the event was attended by the Jordan Paralympic Committee President, HRH Prince Raad bin Zaid. A record nine athletes will represent Jordan at the Olympic Games and 14 at the Paralympic Games. Jordan is hoping to win its first ever Olympic medal this summer.

Around 5,000 people took part in the “From green Ulaanbaatar to Olympic London" run in support of the Mongolian team for the 2012 Games. The participants included S. Batbold, Prime Minister of Mongolia and Vice-President of the Mongolian NOC, his wife and former archer H. Otgontuya, Health Minister N. Khurelbaatar, National Teams Director and Deputy Chef de Mission Ts. Odonbayar, Olympic marathon runner B. Ser-Od and many other prominent personalities from the worlds of sport, art, culture and society. This race will be organised throughout the country until the start of the Games, covering a distance of 12,250km, the exact distance between Ulaanbaatar and London.

The Venezuelan NOC recently unveiled the uniform to be worn by the Olympic delegation in London this summer. A group of athletes, some of whom have already qualified for London 2012, paraded with the uniform. So far, 53 Venezuelan athletes have secured their ticket for London.

ORGANISING COMMITTEES OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES
LONDON 2012
On 17 May, the Organising Committee of the 2012 Games in London (LOCOG) received the Olympic flame at the end of its 3,000km eight-day relay around Greece, during a ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens. Greek NOC President Spyros Capralos handed over the flame to the London 2012 delegation, led by the Princess Royal, President of the British Olympic Association and LOCOG board member, and accompanied by LOCOG chairman Sebastian Coe.

This week, LOCOG officially unveiled the design of the Games tickets. Each ticket design features a pictogram for the corresponding sport, while the colour scheme reflects the venue at which the event will take place.

RECOGNISED ORGANISATIONS
On the day before the Annual General Meeting of the International World Games Association (IWGA), President Ron Froehlich, and Rafał Dutkiewicz, Mayor of the City of Wroclaw, signed the Host Agreement for The World Games 2017. The Polish city will host the 10th edition of these Games, following Cali (Colombia), the host city for The World Games in 2013. The signing ceremony took place on the occasion of the SportAccord Convention in Quebec City.

For more information, please contact the IOC Media Relations Team.