Curious choice. At a time when the IOC is struggling like hell to get rid of the overly expensive image of the Sochi Winter Games, a close friend of Vladimir Putin has been appointed president of the Olympic Games evaluation commission. winter of 2022. Alexander Zhukov, IOC member and president of the Russian Olympic Committee, will lead the group of experts called to inspect and then evaluate the three cities in the race, Almaty (Kazakhstan), Oslo (Norway) and Beijing (China). He chaired the supervisory board of the Sochi Olympic and Paralympic Organizing Committee.
Three other members of the IOC are also part of this evaluation commission: the New Zealander Barry Meister, Olympic field hockey champion in 1976, vice-president of the Association of Oceanian Olympic Committees, the Englishman Adam Pengilly , representative of the athletes' commission, former skeleton champion, and the Japanese Tsunekazu Takeda, president of the Japanese Olympic committee, vice-president of the organizing committee for the Tokyo Games in 2020.
For the rest, the evaluation commission for the 2022 Winter Games is made up of: the Canadian Caroline Assalian (chief sports officer of the Canadian Olympic Committee), the American Dwight Bell (president of the American Luge Association), the Dutch Rita Van Driel (member of the IPC board of directors), the Russian Tatiana Dobrokhvalova (vice-president of the organizing committee of the Sochi Games), the American Grant Thomas (vice-president of the organizing committee of the Salt Lake City Games in 2002), the Canadian John McLaughlin (vice-president of the organizing committee for the Vancouver Games in 2010), the British David Stubbs (IOC advisor for sustainability), the Canadian Tim Gayda (vice -president of the organizing committee for the Vancouver Games in 2010).
On the IOC administration side, the commission will be joined by the executive director for the Olympic Games, Christophe Dubi, and the person responsible for coordination with the candidate cities, Jacqueline Barrett.
Strongly marked by a Russian and North American imprint, the IOC Evaluation Commission will visit the three candidate cities between February and March 2015. It will stay five days in each of them. Its members will be supposed examine “together the 14 themes of the candidacy questionnaire established by the IOC and covering topics such as vision, legacy and commitment, transport, accommodation, finances and sustainability”. The commission will also tour the competition sites and other sites proposed in the application. She will have to write a report which will be presented to the IOC members before June 2015.
Will the presence of Russian Alexander Zhukov at its head favor the candidacy of Almaty, Kazakhstan? Hard to say. One thing is certain: the three candidate cities will have to deal with the new situation initiated by Agenda 2020, the modalities of which will be discussed by the IOC meeting at the General Assembly in December 2014 in Monte-Carlo.
Another certainty: the city that will be chosen to organize the 2022 Winter Games will be able to count on the legendary generosity of the IOC. Its financial contribution, announced in a press release on Monday September 29, will amount to 880 million dollars, or a little less than 700 million euros. This contribution includes a share of revenues from marketing programs conducted by the IOC, a share linked to broadcast revenues, the services provided by OBS (Olympic Broadcast Services) as host broadcaster of the Games and general assistance granted by the IOC and its associated entities to the organizing committee. Furthermore, to ensure the success of the Games, the IOC will grant the organizing committee other rights and benefits, as well as other forms of assistance, as described in the host city contract. A jackpot that could well end up convincing the Norwegian Parliament to finally sign its budgetary commitment in favor of Oslo's candidacy.
