And two. After Toyota, a second member of the TOP program, the very closed circle of the IOC's global partners, presses the stop button. Like the first, it is Japanese.
Panasonic Holdings Corp. announced via a very official press release on Tuesday, September 10, its decision to leave the Olympic movement by terminating its contract with the IOC. The Japanese group explains that it has agreed with Lausanne not to extend the current agreement, scheduled to expire at the end of the year.
Panasonic is closing a long parenthesis that began in 1987, a year before the Calgary Winter Games and the Seoul Summer Games. Its commitment had been renewed several times over the past 37 years. In 2014, the Japanese group extended it to the Paralympic Games.
In its statement, Panasonic assures that it continues to support the Olympic philosophy, but with a different approach. The Osaka-based company justifies its decision by its desire to " to continually review how the partnership should evolve in light of broader management considerations.” It's hard to be more vague.
Panasonic CEO Yuki Kusumi continued in the same vein in the statement: “ Over the past 37 years, we have gained many valuable experiences through this partnership and strengthened our ties with sports fans and athletes around the world.”
Unlike Toyota, where several internal sources have assured that the contract with the IPC will be maintained, Panasonic will end its presence at the Olympic and Paralympic Games at the end of the year.
In Japan, the electronics group's decision did not seem to surprise business circles. The media recall that Panasonic still supplied cameras, sound systems and projection equipment to the Paris 2024 Games, but that its new business strategy now distances it from the audiovisual sector. The decision was even announced last July to sell the commercial projector business. The new priority: batteries for electric vehicles.
For the IOC, the blow is harsh. On the surface, the Olympic body does not concede any embarrassment. The future ex-president, Thomas Bach, is even quoted in the Panasonic press release. "The IOC fully understands and respects that the Panasonic Group needs to adapt its business strategy, he explains. Therefore, this partnership ends in a respectful and amicable manner. ».
However, losing two global partners in quick succession, from a major country in the Olympic movement, is never good news. The names Toyota and Panasonic have been associated with the IOC and the Olympic movement for a very long time. They will have to be replaced.
How? By whom? A first announcement could come quickly. Anne-Sophie Voumard, the IOC's director of marketing and television, took advantage of a press conference at the Paris 2024 Games to let slip a clue: the next big fish attracted to Lausanne will be Indian. "It would be natural for the IOC to soon have a partner from the second largest market in the world in terms of population”, she explained.
Anne-Sophie Voumard did not give a name, but that of the Reliance group is on everyone's lips. The Indian conglomerate, whose activities range from petrochemicals to retail, chemicals and textiles, is increasingly present in the Olympic world. It contributed to and financed the Indian House at the Paris 2024 Games, the first of its kind at the Olympics. Above all, Reliance is headed by Mukesh Ambani, whose wife Nita Ambani has been an IOC member since 2016.
Since Sapporo's forced withdrawal from the race for the 2030 Winter Games, Japan has put its plans for a new Olympic bid on hold. India, for its part, is already actively preparing its offensive for the Summer Games in 2036. The wheel turns.
