This time, the matter is serious. And, as a direct result, the landscape suddenly becomes very foggy. Meeting since the day before in the South Korean city of PyeongChang, the IOC Executive Board decided, this Friday March 17, to push further its reflection on a double vote 2024-2028 during the September 2017 session in Lima.
The subject featured prominently on the agenda for the second day of this first IOC Executive meeting of the year. It was discussed shortly before the end of the debates. A form of dessert for the most influential officials of the Olympic organization. Clarification: the two American members present at the meeting, Anita DeFrantz and Angela Ruggiero, both very involved in Los Angeles' candidacy for the 2024 Games, were quite logically asked to leave the room during the discussion.
Concretely, it was decided by the IOC Executive Board to form a working group to look into reforming the application process of cities for the Olympic Games. Proof of the importance of the subject, and its exceptional nature: the group in question will be led by the 4 vice-presidents of the Olympic organization, the Australian John Coates, the Turk Uğur Erdener, the Spaniard Juan Antonio Samaranch JR and the Chinese Yu Zaiqing.
The four leaders will have carte blanche to advance their thinking. Thomas Bach explained it at a press conference this Friday, at the end of the executive commission meeting: it will be up to the working group to decide whether or not it must consult the Los Angeles and Paris teams during of its investigation into the reform of the application process.
In any case, the quartet will present the conclusions of their work during the briefing of the candidate cities, scheduled for July 11 and 12 in Lausanne. Thomas Bach clarified that it had not yet been decided whether a double allocation of the Games in 2024 and 2028 during the Lima session would be submitted to a vote by all the members of the organization. But he confided that such a change was not, to his knowledge, contrary to the Olympic Charter. “My feeling is that it is flexible enough” to authorize such a reform, suggested the IOC president.
Thomas Bach makes no secret of it: everything is now possible in the race for the 2024 Games. “All options are on the table, including that of a double vote for 2024 and 2028,” he summarized. . There are less than six months left before the IOC session vote, scheduled for September 13, but the organization is not ruling out the possibility of changing the rules. Los Angeles and Paris have continued to repeat, for several months, that they are interested in the 2024 Games and only the 2024 Games. But the executive commission does not seem willing to take their insistence into account.
Paradox: three of the four vice-presidents invited to carry the file have made no secret of their reluctance, even their hostility, to a double vote next September. Asked by Insidethegames, John Coates, Uğur Erdener and Yu Zaiqing, declared themselves opposed to such a reform. A position easy to interpret for at least two of them. Australian John Coates does not rule out a bid from Brisbane for the 2028 Games. Uğur Erdener could launch a new attempt at Istanbul for the same deadline. Curious.
