IOC Executives Meet Before Landmark Session -- Monday Memo

(ATR) The precursor to an unprecedented International Olympic Committee Extraordinary Session takes place in Lausanne when the IOC Executive Board convenes on July 9.

At the gathering of the 15-member EB led by IOC president Thomas Bach, the dual Olympic award proposal for the Summer 2024 and Summer 2028 Games will be the primary focus of discussion as the entire IOC membership prepares to vote on the proposal in the days that follow.

Bach will likely tout the proposal as the best option for the Olympic Movement at this time given the proclivity of cities to cancel bids at any stage during the revamped three-stage bidding process. The IOC is left with two good options in Los Angeles and Paris for the next two Summer Games after what began as a five-city race.

More than $600 million has been spent by the five candidates including Hamburg, Rome and Budapest (in order of campaign exit) throughout the two-year campaign. Bach wants to once again revisit the bidding structure, with part two of the proposal from IOC executives on June 9 to reduce the Winter 2026 bidding campaign to one year.

The IOC chief hopes this new attempt at a more collaborative approach will stop the repeated failures of cities in consecutive bidding cycles.

As it stands, both Los Angeles and Paris are steadfast in their approach towards the Summer 2024 Games and have been preparing for their long presentations to the IOC members July 11 in Lausanne during the Extraordinary Session.

LA 2024’s presentation will feature content from its newest "Follow The Sun to Olympic Agenda 2020" campaign. The promotion of 20 activities in 20 days is designed to invoke the spirit of the reforms that Agenda 2020 emphasizes.

Paris 2024 will utilize images and video from its massive Olympic Day celebrations where more than 1.1 million people participated in 33 Olympic and Paralympic sporting demonstrations across the two-day celebration.

The IOC Executive Board meeting that precludes the Session will close on July 10, with the Session running from July 11-12. The IOC is expected to approve the dual Olympic award, setting up an interesting scheduled IOC Session in Lima, Peru Sep. 13-16 where two Olympic host cities could be chosen.

A Paris 2024 Flavor to the Tour de France

The 104th edition of the Tour de France will have a definite Paris 2024 feel to it.

From the first stage on July 1 to the 21st and final stage on July 23, an athlete and ambassador for the Paris bid to host the Olympic Games will be involved in presenting the yellow jersey to the overall leader of the race after each stage.

Laura Flessel, the French Minister for Sport and Olympic fencing champion, was in charge of the legendary jersey after the opening stage on Saturday in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Tony Estanguet, the joint chairman of the Paris 2024 bid committee and Olympic canoeing champion, will do the honors in Paris for the final stage. He will present the yellow jersey to the overall winner on the Champs-Elysées.

The Tour de France says it has other plans to feature the Paris bid along the way from Dusseldorf to the French capital.

Click here to read more about Paris 2024's involvement with the race.

No Clear Front Runners at Wimbledon 2017

The third Grand Slam tournament of the 2017 tennis season begins this week as the world’s best players converge in London for the Wimbledon Championships.

The 131st edition of the championship is organized by the All England Lawn Tennis Club and International Tennis Federation and officially begins on Monday, July 3.

Only one of the defending champions from the 2016 edition of the tournament is back, as women’s champion Serena Williams ended her season in April to focus on giving birth to her first child. Williams had won the previous two editions of the event, leaving the door open for a number of title competitors. Serena’s sister Venus Williams says she will still play in the tournament despite a police report claiming she is at fault in an accident in Florida that caused the death of one passenger in the other vehicle.

Andy Murray will seek to retain his world number one ranking and Wimbledon title from 2016. He will face a tough challenge from healthy competitors Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, one of which has won Wimbledon in each of the past 14 years.

The tournament concludes on July 16.

PanAmSports Continues NOC Meetings

The Pan American Sports Organization’s new leadership is continuing its National Olympic Committee outreach this week in Miami, Florida.

New president Neven Ilic and secretary general Ivar Sisniega are meeting with the presidents and secretary generals of 18 of the 41 PanAmSports NOCs between July 4 and July 8 to understand the specific needs of their country’s sports programs.

The meetings with each NOC last approximately three hours and are taking place in the same building that new regional PanAmSports offices will open later this month. The meetings and new office space in Miami is part of the organization’s efforts to make the south Florida city the "nerve center of PanAmSports".

The schedule of the NOC meetings are as follows:

July 4 - Trinidad and Tobago, Bahamas, Cayman Islands and Ecuador

July 5 – Colombia, Aruba, St. Kitts and Nevis and El Salvador

July 6 – Grenada, British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Bolivia

July 7 – Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Belize and United States Virgin Islands

July 8 – Suriname and Bermuda

Youth Olympic Coordination Commission Convenes in Argentina

The fourth visit of the IOC Coordination Commission for the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games begins on July 4.

The six-member commission is led by interim chair Lingwei Li of China. The other members include Danka Bartekova, Barry Maister, Henry Núñez Najera, Andrew Ryan and Adham Sharara.

Li was named chair of the commission when former chairman Frank Fredericks stepped down amid a probe into a vote-buying scandal for the Rio 2016 Olympics.

The CoComm concludes on July 5.

ATR Closed for Independence Day

The Around the Rings’ Atlanta office will be closed on July 4 in observance of the United States Independence Day.

Our network of correspondents around the world will keep you informed on the latest in the Olympic Movement until we return to the office on July 5.

Written by Kevin Nutley and Gerard Farek.

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