International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach will be paying close attention to the 2022 Bid City presentations scheduled for the IOC Membership Tuesday – and not just to discover the plans that Almaty and Beijing are offering the Olympic movement – but also to see how Agenda 2020 is having an impact internally.
Close to 85 IOC members will gather at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne to watch the two presentations given by the remaining candidates to host the 2022 Olympic Games, and ask questions.
“I’m really looking forward to the presentations tomorrow because this will be an opportunity to learn more about how the candidates want to position their candidature and their project; how they want to address Olympic Agenda 2020,” Bach said after the closing of the IOC Executive Board meeting Monday.
“I’m very happy with the response to the IOC Evaluation Commission report because it also shows that the spirit of Olympic Agenda 2020 is already playing a good role in this procedure that has been started way ahead of Agenda 2020.”
The evaluation report was released last week and contained comments and information in a much more candid and opinionated format than in the past, clearly a result of Agenda 2020 reforms. Major weaknesses were acknowledged and reported about each of the bids where historically IOC members would be tasked to form their own opinions.
Bach hopes that the membership will closely consider the comments when they vote for their chosen candidate July 31 in Kuala Lumpur.
“I’m also looking forward to the internal discussion with the evaluation commission because this is also a new element we have been introducing so will also be a learning process for us.”
“How this idea is working and having its effect on the opinion-building of the IOC members.”
Often in Olympic host city votes the technically superior bids do not win meaning members are either not reading the report or voting based on other criteria. The new process is designed so that members can vote more constructively and in line with Agenda 2020 goals.
