2024, 2028 CoComm Leaders Named

(ATR) An unusual arrangement for the 2024 and 2028 Summer Olympics means a different arrangement for the IOC Coordination Commissions.

Just over a month from the selection of Paris as the host of the 2024 Games and Los Angeles as the site for 2028, the IOC has quickly announced the chairs of the respective commissions which will oversee preparations for those Olympics.

Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant, Belgian NOC president and an IOC member since 2012, has been handed the chairmanship for Paris.

Beckers-Vieujant, 57, also chairs the Audit Committee and is a member of the Finance and Ethics Commissions. He is retired as the chairman of multinational grocery company Delhaize.

Patrick Baumann of Switzerland will lead the Los Angeles 2028 commission. Baumann was the chair of the IOC Evaluation Commission for the 2024 Olympic bids as well as the panel that was formed to scrutinize Los Angeles as a 2028 host city.

The first visit of the IOC Coordination Commission Paris 2024 to the French capital is scheduled for mid-2018.

As far as a first visit to Los Angeles, it may be a few years before that takes place, perhaps after the Tokyo Olympics have ended in 2020. First of all there needs to be a commission for Los Angeles and so far Baumann is the only member.

But the Paris commission is named, a number of its members already veterans of the Evaluation Commission for 2024. Keeping with the IOC’s increased emphasis on gender equality, the Paris 2024 CoComm is the first to have more women than men, with an eight-seven split.

Along with Beckers and Baumann the group includes:

IOC members Dagmawit Girmay Berhane of Ethiopia, Marisol Casado from Spain, Mikaela Cojuangco Jaworski of the Philippines, Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, Ugur Erdener from Turkey, Alex Gilady of Israel, Nicole Hoevertsz from Aruba, Lingwei Li of China, Gunilla Lindberg from Sweden and Gerardo Werthein of Argentina.

International Federations will be represented by Francesco Ricci Bitti, president of the Global Association of International Sports Federations.

Auvita Rapilla, president of the NOC in Papua New Guinea is named as the representative of the NOCs.

Sarah Walker of New Zealand is the delegate named on behalf of the IOC Athletes Commission.

The International Paralympic Committee will be represented by another New Zealander, Duane Kale.

Prior to the first official visit to Paris, the IOC will meet with the Paris 2024 team during an orientation seminar at the end of November. Here, plans for the formation of the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee will begin to take shape. The IOC will also present to Parisian stakeholders about the opportunities the Games can bring the French capital.

Written by Ed Hula

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