(ATR) Fifteen opinion makers of the Olympic Movement offered their support for reforming the Olympic bid process, the creation of an Olympic television channel and other potential Olympic changes.
The decisions came at the Olympic Summit, a gathering of key Olympic stakeholders at IOC headquarters in Lausanne.
The primary purpose of the Olympic Summit was to provide transparency and keep stakeholders abreast of change.
Topics discussed in detail during the morning and early afternoon session included cost management of the Games, the fight against doping, good governance and transparency within the IOC, the sports calendar and youth strategy.
Among other possible reforms has been the potential extension of the Olympic Games from two to three weeks, an idea that is now being met with substantial disapproval from IOC members and stakeholders.
"As ANOC, representing the NOCs, we are very happy that President Bach and the IOC is keen to hold this kind of summit meeting to get all the stakeholders together to discuss very important issues," said Association of National Olympic Committees president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah.
"This kind of cooperation will concrete the solidarity of the movement which we need at this period to see the vision for the future," he said.
International ski federation chief
Gian-Franco Kasper added: "It was a very interesting meeting, a summary of what has been done by the working groups.""We are not a decision making body, but we reviewed the Olympic Agenda 2020," said ASOIF and tennis federation president Francesco Ricci Bitti of the prominent group attending Olympic Summit.
Joining IOC President Thomas Bach, Sheik Ahmad, Kasper and Ricci Bitti, were IOC vice presidents John Coates, Craig Reedie and Zaiquing Yu; executive board members Patrick Hickey and C.K. Wu; athletes’ commission chair Claudia Bokel, gymnastics federation president Bruno Grand; swimming federation president Julio Cesar Maglione and SportAccord chief Marius Vizer. Larry Probst, Alexander Zhukov and Liu Peng represent the NOCs of the United States, Russia and China respectively.
Further consultations regarding Olympic Agenda 2020 are scheduled for a retreat in September, when Saturday’s results along with updates from the working groups will be presented to the IOC commissions.
Additional refinement of proposals will then take place at the October IOC Executive Board meeting.
Any major decisions will be approved at the Extraordinary IOC Session in Monaco, Dec. 8-9.
Written by Brian Pinelli in Lausanne
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