France Studies 2024 Bid, 2018 Failure
Despite remarks by French president Nicolas Sarkozy last week backing France to make a 2024 Olympic bid, French National Olympic and Sport Committee chief Denis Masseglia tells Around the Rings a decision will only come after a full investigation into Annecy's failed bid for 2018.
Annecy garnered just seven votes in the IOC ballot for the 2018 Winter Games at the Session in Durban last July, with PyeongChang winning hosting rights by a huge margin in the first round of voting. Munich drew 25 votes.
Speaking to ATR on the sidelines of the World Olympic Sport Convention in Moscow, Masseglia confirmed that Sarkozy had reignited the bidding issue by saying he was in favor of a 2024 bid during his re-election campaign.
Masseglia said the French NOC had commissioned a feasibility study into the possibilities for a summer Olympic bid from France.
Etienne Thobois, who leads the Olympics-related practice of French consultants Keneo, is currently conducting that inquest into Annecy's humiliating defeat in the 2018 race. It will offer recommendations towards another Olympic bid.
His report, due to be presented to the French NOC next month, will provide an indication of whether a French bid will come from Paris for the 2024 Games, which would mark the 100th anniversary of the first Games in France.
Thobois, former CEO of the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, is currently providing some technical help to Tokyo's bid for the 2020 Summer Games.
Generations For Peace Anniversary
International non-profit Generations For Peace turns five Monday.
The organization will celebrate with events marking the occasion in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Meanwhile, founder and chairman Prince Feisal Al Hussein got started a day early in his Sunday speech to leaders of the world’s National Olympic Committees convened in Moscow.
"The concept was bold," the IOC member and NOC president from Jordan said of his though process on April 16, 2007.
"Bring together volunteer leaders of youth from different backgrounds and different countries. Train them in a new curriculum providing a unique combination of conflict transformation through sport, theory with practical application, teaching and facilitation. Enable them to share their own experiences and to learn from each other [...] In brief: empower them to change themselves, and change their communities, for the better."
Generations For Peace has to date trained and mentored almost 6,000 delegates and "pioneers" from 48 countries and territories as well as engaged more than 90,000 children through sport.
Incheon 2014 Signs Hill+Knowlton
Hill+Knowlton Strategies willhandle global PR for South Korea’s upcoming Asian Games.
Incheon 2014 secretary general Kyung-sang Kwon and H+K Strategies Asia CEO James Heimowitz signed the agreement Monday morning in Seoul, unveiling "Cheer, Asia" as their campaign theme for the years ahead.
The new partners also announced plans to take their message to Singapore, Tokyo, New Delhi, Dubai, Kazakhstan and 2010 Asian Games host Guangzhou next year. Sports, culture and tourism executives as are expected to join the road show alongside media from 19 countries.
"With the appointment of H+K Strategies as our official global PR agency, the Pan-Asia campaign to promote the Incheon Asian Games will make a great impact and inspire people from everywhere in Asia to join in our festivities," IAGOC president Young-soo Kim said in a statement.
H+K has a bit of history in South Korea, supporting PyeongChang’s failed bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics as well as Deagu’s successful campaign for the 2011 IAAF World Athletics Championships.
Vonn Owes Back Taxes
Olympic ski champion Lindsey Vonn says she "just recently became aware of" the more than $1.7 million in back taxes she owes the Internal Revenue Service.
"I am disappointed with this situation," reads a statement posted Sunday to her Facebook page.
"I have done everything in my power to settle it immediately. The money owed was for the 2010 tax year, which was filed on time, and it has been paid in full. This is an important lesson for me. Not being in control of my finances and relying on someone else who you believed had your best interest at heart was a mistake and one I will not make twice."
Vonn, fresh off winning her fourth overall World Cup title and setting a women’s record of 1,980 points, is going through a divorce from her husband of four years – and former coach – Thomas Vonn.
The Detroit News reported Monday that the IRS filed a $1,705,437 tax lien against the Vonns earlier this month in Nevada.
Security Chief Rejoins Rio 2016
Luiz Fernando Correa is back at work as security director for Rio 2016.
Correa left the organizing committee in February over a complaint into his past as Brazil’s secretary of public security but will rejoin after a federal court rejected the charges.
"Given this context, Correa and Rio 2016 understand the director can resume his duties as head of the Security department," says a Friday statement from Rio 2016.
Olympic Swim Champion, 73
Murray Rose, 73, is remembered as "part of the swimming DNA in this country" by Swimming Australia president David Urquhart.
Rose, who won three of his four Olympic gold medals on home soil at Melbourne 1956, died Sunday in Sydney after a battle with leukemia.
He also won three medals – a gold, silver and bronze – at Rome 1960, carried the Olympic Flag at the opening ceremony for Sydney 2000 and set 15 world records in middle-distance events such as the 400m, 800m and 1,500m freestyles.
With reporting from Mark Bisson in Moscow and Matthew Grayson in Atlanta
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