IOC Nearing End of African YOG Visits

(ATR) An IOC group is spending 12 days in Africa to assess three potential hosts for the 2022 Youth Olympic Games.

The IOC confirmed to Around the Rings that a four-person technical team is visiting Botswana, Nigeria, and Senegal from May 8-20. The team is comprised of Antoine Goetschy, Associate Director Youth Olympic Games, Gilbert Felli, Senior Olympic Games advisor, Mathieu Pouret, Culture and Education Program expert, and Melina Simm, consultant.

An African city was allocated for the 2022 Youth Olympic Games during the 2018 IOC Session in PyeongChang. Since then four countries expressed interest, but the IOC said it would be freezing Tunisia’s application to host the Games given its refusal to allow Israeli athletes to compete in the country. IOC member Ugur Erdner will chair the 2022 YOG Evaluation Commission following the visits.

Seydina Diagne, Senegal Olympic Committee Secretary General, confirmed to ATR that the IOC would be visiting Dakar from May 15-19. Diagne declined to give any information about what the committee would be presenting to the IOC.

Representatives from the Botswana and Nigeria National Olympic Committees did not return requests for comment about the visit. Gaborone, Botswana hosted the 2014 African Youth Games.

The IOC wrapped up its visit in Abuja, Nigeria today according to a release from the Nigerian Olympic Committee. A mixture of both NOC and government officials, and IOC member Habul Gumel, were part of a set of presentations to the technical team.

Solomon Dalung, Nigerian Minister of Youth and Sports Development, said "I want to commend the IOC for developing a mechanism for Africa to be taken along," and allowed to host a YOG in a statement following the visit. So far no African city has hosted either an Olympics or Commonwealth Games. The last African city to make an IOC Olympic bid shortlist was Cape Town for the 2004 Olympics.

"Abuja is ready to host because we have hosted international competitions in the past," Dalung said."Moreover, the IOC has emphasized that countries seeking to host the games should not build new structures but improve on their existing ones or make use of temporary facilities which will be dismantled after the games. We have the organizational capacity, the experience and the technical know-how to host."

Erdner told ATR that after the preliminary visits the group will meet with the evaluation commission and "will decide our roadmap by the end of this month". Following the roadmap, the commission will meet with the three cities again in the coming months.

The 2022 Youth Olympic Games host will be decided at an IOC Session during the 2018 Youth Olympic Games this October in Buenos Aires.

Written by Aaron Bauer

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