Games Optimization Panel forms for Paris 2024 Olympics

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has formed a new working group meant to optimize the Olympic Games of the future.

IOC member Kirsty Coventry, also chair of the coordination commission for Brisbane 2032, will lead the group. IOC President Thomas Bach says the panel is supposed to “optimize to modern times” all aspects of the Games.

From the number of training venues to the organization of transport, nothing is off the table says Bach. He wants to see a “younger, more digitized” Games as a result.

Coventry has already led one meeting of the working group, with “all satisfied” with the first steps says Bach.

Bach says the group is also dividing its attention on recommendations that apply to all Olympics and those that can be used for specific Games, where specialized venues needed for some sports may exist.

Paris 2024 will be the first to feel the effects of this new effort says Bach. He said the French capital is on track and says he is looking forward to the “first post-pandemic Olympic Games”.

Speaking at a press briefing Friday at the conclusion of a two-day meeting of the IOC Executive Board, Bach painted a picture of a glorious Paris in 2024 “with 600,000 people on the river” for opening ceremony on the Seine in the city center.

Bach also announced the launch of a new effort to push for human rights in sport. Meant to bring the sports body into line with best practices in human rights, Bach hailed the approval of a three-pronged approach by the IOC EB in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The new policy is directed at the IOC as an organization, as the owner of the Olympic Games and thirdly to set an example as a leader in sport.

The IOC has faced ongoing questions about its role in human rights protection and this initiative could provide guidance and structure moving forward. It is not at all certain that this policy would have prevented, for example, the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. China is the target of accusations that the human rights of millions of ethnic Uyghurs in western China are being trampled. China denies such.

Nor is it clear whether the policy will hasten changes in Afghanistan, where the IOC is fighting discrimination against women in sport as a result of the Taliban takeover last year. Bach says the last meeting between the IOC and Afghan leaders was months ago. Observers say there has been no loosening of the Taliban oppression of women. At the just ended Islamic Solidarity Games in Saudi Arabia, all of the female competitors with Afghan nationalities were living in exile.

Bach admitted the IOC has been buffeted in the past two and a half years by the economic pressures wrought by the pandemic. He says the IOC remains “very prudent” in its spending, recognizing that supply chain issues, inflation and the war in Russia remain as drags for business. While not giving a number, Bach indicated the IOC cash reserve, once well over $500 million, is still in the black, despite extra spending forced by the one year postponement of Tokyo 2020.

“There is no reason to panic,” says Bach.