(ATR) A meeting of the world’s Olympic stakeholders is the perfect place to discuss the necessary "innovation" needed for the Olympic candidature process, Thomas Bach says.
Bach spoke about the need for change before more than 1,000 delegates at the 2017 SportAccord Convention opening ceremony in Aarhus, Denmark. The convention, which mostly focuses on international sport federations, is the site of the second formal presentation by the 2024 bid cities. As the cities presented, Bach engaged mayors from both citiesas did an IOC working group tasked with exploring the feasibility of jointly awarding both the 2024 and 2028 Games.
Bach said that innovation will have a "fundamental impact" on the future of sport with regard to the candidature process. The IOC president reiterated his belief that the process currently produces "too many losers" instead of finding the best city to host the Games.
Another wrinkle Bach spoke about is the current political climate throughout the world. In this climate the IOC is seeing bids supported by government stakeholders voted down by the public.
"The public nowadays has great mistrust in any establishment and we belong in their eyes to the establishment, and they have even greater mistrust when the different establishments are working together," Bach said.
"Whether [voting against an Olympic bid is] illogical or not, this is the reality that we all are confronted with today. This makes its more and more difficult to build a winning candidate."
With more and more losers in the process, Bach expressed his worry about cities choosing to drop out from the Olympic bid race entirely. Previously, cities would bid multiple times refining bids before finally securing the Games from the IOC.
"I look forward to hearing your perspectives on this and all the other important issues. This is why events like SportAccord Convention are very important," Bach added. "The offer from the IOC to all International Federations and sports organizations is be welcome, feel welcome to join this effort to shape a better world through sport."
Interestingly, Bach made no reference to the upcoming IOC Session, which is scheduled for Lima, Peru in September. Peru is currently facing a series of deadly floods, which have reportedly impacted organization for the session. The IOC announced today it would be donating $600,000 towards recovery efforts "as a sign of solidarity" from the Olympic Movement.;
Written by Aaron Bauer
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