For the first time in more than two decades, the world’s national Olympic committees are holding their annual congress in the US.
In the nation’s capital, no less.
The symbolism and timing of this week’s gathering in Washington of sports leaders from more than 200 countries is highly significant for US Olympic interests.
It is a sign of how the US Olympic Committee is forging closer links with the rest of the world after years of isolation, and comes at a time when Los Angeles is bidding to host the 2024 Games.
“For us, this is part of not just a longer-term plan, but a change in our orientation,” US Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun said. “We want to be more active and engaged. Hosting this meeting is one of the things that you need to do.”
More than 1,000 delegates from 206 nations are expected to attend the general assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) tomorrow and Friday.
IOC president Thomas Bach, dozens of IOC members and sports federation leaders, organizers of the next three Olympics and representatives from the five bid cities for the 2024 Games arer also to be on hand.
Many delegates started arriving Monday ahead of preliminary meetings yesterday and today.
While no earth-shaking decisions are expected, the meetings bring most of the world’s key Olympic players together under one roof, offering a platform for bilateral talks and backstage lobbying and networking.
Bach is expected to meet with USOC officials about the development of the digital Olympic Channel, which may launch next year. The project — aimed at promoting the Olympics 24 hours a day, 365 days a year — will rely heavily on the backing and involvement of NBC and US sponsors.
Overseeing the week’s events will be ANOC’s influential president, Kuwaiti Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, one of the top powerbrokers in the Olympic world. The sheikh is also a new executive committee member of FIFA, and has been at the center of the behind-the-scenes politicking involving the presidential race at the scandal-scarred soccer body.
Blackmun said he and USOC chairman Larry Probst met with Sheikh Ahmad in 2012 shortly after he took over ANOC, and got a clear message.
“From the very beginning he asked us to be more involved,” Blackmun said. “He made us feel that bids for US hosted events would be welcome.”
The last time the ANOC assembly was held in the US was in 1994 in Atlanta, two years before the 1996 Olympics. That is also the last time the Summer Games have been held in the US
After New York and Chicago were rejected by the IOC for the 2012 and 2016 Games respectively, the US is back in the bid game with Los Angeles. The California metropolis was selected by the USOC after Boston’s bid collapsed amid a lack of public and political support. Washington had also been a contender for the US nomination.
Los Angeles, which hosted the games in 1932 and 1984, is up against four European cities: Paris; Rome; Hamburg, Germany; and Budapest, Hungary. The two-year campaign started last month. The IOC is to select the host city in 2017.
The ANOC meeting marks the first time the five bid cities will be in the same place at the same time. Each city is allowed six delegates. The Los Angeles team includes Mayor Eric Garcetti and bid leader Casey Wasserman.
The bids will not be making presentations or launching major promotional campaigns this week, but they will be able to meet with delegates and start spreading their message. Los Angeles is viewed as an early favorite, along with Paris.
One decision this week involves another California city: San Diego is expected to be announced as the host of ANOC’s inaugural World Beach Games in 2017. The multi-sport event includes beach versions of soccer, volleyball and flag football.
Still unclear is which US government representative will address the opening of the assembly tomorrow. US Vice President Joe Biden is considered a possibility.
ANOC is also holding a gala awards ceremony at the DAR Constitution Hall tomorrow night to recognize top athletes from each continent.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier