adminTHE International Olympic Committee Executive Board have approved the creation of a Games Optimisation Working Group.
It’s chaired by Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Minister, Kirsty Coventry.
Its aim is to adapt the organisation of the Olympics to “modern times” and financial challenges.
The establishment of a Games Optimisation Group had been recommended in the IOC Tokyo 2020 Coordination Commission’s final report to the Session in May.
Chair of the Tokyo 2020 Coordination Commission, IOC vice-president John Coates, is among the members of the new Working Group, as revealed by IOC president Thomas Bach.
He is joined by Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant, Sari Essayah and Nicole Hoevertsz, who are chairing Coordination Commissions for Paris 2024, Milan Cortina 2026 and Los Angeles 2028 respectively.
Representatives from various Organising Committees, Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations president Ivo Ferriani and his Association of Summer Olympic International Federations counterpart Francesco Ricci Bitti are also on the Working Group.
They are joined by representatives from National Olympic Committees, the International Paralympic Committee, media partners, press, members of The Olympic Partners programme and officials from the IOC’s Olympic Games department.
Overseeing the Group as chair is Coventry, who chairs the IOC’s Coordination Commission for Brisbane 2032.
Two “working streams” have been established for the Optimisation Working Group, covering what is applicable for every edition of the Olympics and more Games-specific issues.
Bach said that this aimed “to make the Games more feasible, more sustainable and more modern for the best athletes of the world to shine.”
It seeks to “adapt the organisation of the Olympic Games to modern times to our challenges, in particular on the financial and economical side, but also to make them even younger, to make them more digital.”
The Working Group has held its first meeting, in which Bach claimed participants were “very satisfied”, and the gathering had yielded some “concrete results in one respect or the other.”
Paris 2024 is among the Organising Committees facing financial challenges amid significant rises in inflation across Europe.
“This Working Group will play an important role to keep Paris on track, because they are on track and they are on a very good track,” the IOC president said.
“We enjoy a very close cooperation with them in every respect, also when it comes to the optimisation.
“Optimisation must happen without giving up on the ambitions we together, Paris and the IOC, have for these Games.” – Inside the Games
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter