IOC 2024 Evaluation Commission Reviews Bid Visits -- Monday Memo

(ATR) The International Olympic Committee members evaluating the 2024 Olympic bids will reconvene this week for the first time since their visits to Los Angeles and Paris.

The week-long tour of the final two bid cities in the race to host the 2024 Summer Games took place from May 9-16 and left the 13-member evaluation commission in awe of the cities’ Olympic and Paralympic plans.

Led by FIBA secretary general Patrick Baumann, the evaluation commission will meet for four days to compare notes on their extensive venue tours, working sessions and meetings held during the inspections. The commission members were split into groups during the tours of LA and Paris so not every IOC member had the same experience in each city.

The team will begin to compile its evaluation commission report that will be made available to the IOC and the 2024 cities before the Olympic candidate debriefing and presentations from July 11-12 in Lausanne.

Any decisions or recommendations made by the evaluation commission in its meetings this week could influence the IOC Executive Board meeting taking place in Lausanne from June 9-10. The EB will meet to consider a process that will enable the IOC to select Los Angeles and Paris for the 2024 and 2028 Olympics in the same vote Sep. 13 at the IOC Session in Lima, Peru.

The IOC has established a working group of its four vice presidents to determine the feasibility of such a vote and if the bidding process should be changed.

The commission’s private meeting begins on May 29 and concludes June 1 in the Olympic capital of Lausanne.

Table Tennis Champs in Germany

The 2017 Liebherr ITTF Table Tennis World Championships begin Monday, May 29 in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Athletes will compete across five disciplines in the premier table tennis event of the year, including: men’s singles and doubles, women’s singles and doubles and mixed doubles.

The 2017 world championships mark the seventh time the event has been held in Germany in 54 total editions.

More than 700 table tennis players will compete for the title of world number one across the eight days of competition at Messe Düsseldorf.

The tournament concludes June 5.

Table Tennis, Weightlifting Hold Elections

Two incumbent International Federation presidents face tough opposition this week in their bids for re-election.

The International Weightlifting Federation holds its electoral congress on May 29-30 in Bangkok, Thailand where incumbent president Tamas Ajan faces challenges from six other candidates.

The IWF is also hosting elections for its 16 executive board positions and 21 other positions within the organization currently up for grabs. The IWF says 119 candidates have been proposed by 72 countries for the positions.

President of the International Table Tennis Federation Thomas Weikert only faces one challenger in the ITTF elections set for May 31 in Dusseldorf, Germany but he is a formidable one. Weikert is seeking re-election over Olympian and former world number one Jean-Michel Saive of Belgium.

Weikert and Saive had a third challenger in Khalil Al-Mohannadi before he dropped from the presidential campaign on May 10. The vote takes place during the 2017 Liebherr World Championships that begin on Monday in Dusseldorf.

Written by Kevin Nutley

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