He had promised it. He will keep his word. Thomas Bach will not wait until next year and after the Sochi Games to discuss, with his IOC lieutenants, the future of the Olympic movement. According to the Associated Press, the IOC president chose to organize a “retreat” from December 11 to 14, in Montreux, Switzerland.
These four days of reflection and exchange, in the very Olympian calm of the Swiss resort, will allow us to review several subjects, in particular a revision of the Olympic program, the relaxation of the selection process of candidate cities and the increase in the he maximum age of IOC members is 70 years.
The meeting will follow the executive committee meeting, scheduled for December 10 in Lausanne which, exceptionally, will last only one day.
Obviously, Thomas Bach, 59, wants to quickly put his own vision of things in place. He wants more flexibility in the Olympic program. Thus, the IOC would no longer have to rule out a sport to force it to make changes. During his presidential election campaign, the German leader said it was possible to increase the number of sports (currently 28) in the Olympic Games, by eliminating some of the disciplines already present. A proposal confirmed mid-week, in Japan, where the IOC president told the press that baseball and softball, beaten by the fight last September during the vote for the entry of a new sport in 2020, still had their chances of appearing on the program for the Tokyo Olympics.
Ideas and recommendations proposed during the retreat will be presented at the next meeting of the IOC Executive Committee and General Assembly in Sochi in February, just before the start of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
