Funny day for the IOC. The Olympic body is organizing the first session in its history in virtual mode this Friday July 17 from Lausanne. It should have been held in Tokyo, as an appetizer before the opening of the Summer Games.
Instead, members of the institution will face their computers. For the occasion, the 136th session was reduced to a short day. Four hours, no coffee break. It should not take more to send an agenda dominated by a handful of elections and the arrival in the house of a new class of members.
A necessary part of the IOC sessions: reports on the progress of work on the upcoming Games. The Japanese in Tokyo should have been spared, too busy taking care of the final details of their event. But the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Games until next year leaves them once again in the spotlight.
Facing the session, this Friday, John Coates will present yet another venue a year before the event. It comes as no surprise. The Australian will speak in his capacity as president of the coordination commission to reiterate that the Tokyo Games will be simplified. He will recall that the working groups formed in Tokyo and Lausanne have identified 200 measures likely to reduce the bill.
But, barring a huge surprise, John Coates will not yet release the figure everyone is expecting: the real amount of the additional cost of the Games. He's not ready. So much the better, because it would undoubtedly have ruined the atmosphere.
The Beijing 2022, Paris 2024, Milan-Cortina 2026 and Los Angeles 2028 teams will also be invited to present their roadmap. The South Koreans of Gangwon, the prefecture designated at the start of the year to host the Winter Youth Games in 2024, will also have the floor.
On the other hand, the Senegalese of Dakar 2022 are exempt from the exercise. Instead, the IOC session will validate as one man the postponement to the year 2026 of the next Youth Games, the first Olympic event on African soil. The executive commission decided it two days before, at the request of Macky Sall, the Senegalese president.
The elections now. They look a little more uncertain. Everything is already decided for the two vice-presidential positions. The Singaporean Ng Ser Miang and the Australian John Coates will replace the Turk Uğur Erdener and the Spaniard Juan Antonio Samaranch, whose mandates are coming to an end. They are the only two candidates.
On the other hand, a certain suspense will build up in the virtual “room” at the time of the election of the two places on the executive commission. There are four applicants: the Filipino Mikaela Cojuangco Jaworski, the Belgian Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant, the Ethiopian Dagmawit Berhane, the Argentinian Gerardo Werthein.
For the rest, the mass has already been said. Five new IOC members are proposed to the session. They will all be elected. Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, is expected to lead the small delegation. He will be accompanied by the Saudi princess Reema Bandar Al-Saud, the former Croatian president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, the Cuban Maria de la Caridad Colón Ruenes, and the Mongolian Battushig Batbold. Three women, two men. Parity is getting closer.
With their entry into the house, the IOC will go back above the 100 mark, with 105 full members.
Finally, the postponement of the Tokyo Games benefits five members of the institution, all elected or appointed to the athletes' commission. The Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry, the Slovak Danka Barteková, the French Tony Estanguet, the Australian James Tomkins and the Swede Stefan Holm should have returned their keys on the evening of the closing ceremony, Sunday August 9, 2020. The IOC session will validate online , this Friday, July 17, the one-year extension of their mandate.
