A ritual. As every year at this time, the IOC is organizing its traditional Olympic summit at the end of the week. It is to be held on Saturday, December 7 at Olympic House, the headquarters of the body in Lausanne. The casting does not reveal any big surprises. Chaired for the last time by Thomas Bach, the 13th Olympic summit will bring together for a few hours more than thirty guests, all or almost all members of the IOC, including the vice-presidents Nicole Hoevertsz, Nawal El Moutawake and Gerardo Werthein, President of the Athletes' Commission Emma Terho, and the presidents of two of the world's most powerful national Olympic committees, Gene Sykes for the United States and Gao Zhidan for China. The IOC has also invited four international federation presidents: Gianni Infantino for FIFA, Luc Tardif for the IIHF (ice hockey), Jae-youl Kim for ISU and Husain Al-Musallam for World Aquatics. As every year, the continental associations will be represented by their president: Mustapha Berraf for Africa, Spyros Capralos for Europe, Randhir Singh for Asia and Neven Ilic for America. Less expected, but quite logically, the IOC has increased its guest list by inviting to Lausanne the seven candidates to succeed Thomas Bach as president: Hassan Al Hussein, David Lappartient, Johan Eliasch, Juan Antonio Samaranch, Kirsty Coventry, Sebastian Coe, and Morinari Watanabe. On the agenda were the usual topics of discussion in the Olympic movement: the success of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the upcoming Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, the Olympic esports Games, the Olympic agenda on AI and the protection of athletes.
