India’s push toward winning the 2036 Olympics hosting contest seemed to stall a little on Thursday in the first big decision of Kirsty Coventry’s International Olympic Committee (IOC) presidency.
Coventry paused the fast tracking of a preferred bidder — a signature policy of her predecessor and mentor Thomas Bach — in a concession to IOC members who have wanted more say in decisions under new leadership.
“Members want to be engaged more in the process” of picking Olympic hosts, Coventry said, citing “overwhelming support” at meetings this week to stop and review how it is done and when.
Photo: AFP
India has been seen as gaining momentum in the 2036 race that involves at least 10 bidders in talks including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Istanbul in Turkey.
In her third full day in office, Coventry promised to create two working groups — to look at how hosts are chosen, and a second analyzing how to “protect the female category” after controversy in women’s boxing at the Paris Olympics last year.
OLYMPICS
The two-time Olympic champion swimmer also restated a principled vision ahead of the 2028 Summer Games in the city of Los Angeles, which US President Donald Trump this month called “a trash heap.”
“We see the best of humanity, we see compassion for others” in Olympic values, Coventry said at a news conference after chairing her first executive board meeting over two days.
“If we can celebrate in the diversity that we are, and that we have, we can really work towards creating something great,” the former sports minister of Zimbabwe said, pledging to try to inspire young people.
Olympic officials from LA met with Coventry’s board on Wednesday and promised a “unity of effort” in the city where the Trump administration deployed military forces after street protests against immigration raids.
“There is so much goodwill from all levels of government,” including federal, Coventry said.
“That gives us faith,” she said, adding that a platform for the Olympics “will be there for us to ensure that our values are stuck to but that our values will also be heard.”
DECISION ON 2036
After Los Angeles in 2028, the 2032 Summer Games would go to Brisbane, which was picked 11 years ahead of time in the most secretive of modern hosting decisions.
Bach aimed to avoid expensive bid campaigns and contested votes that could lead to negative headlines: rejection by local voters or allegations of vote buying.
Instead, the IOC administration talked discreetly with potential hosts with no set timetable to deal exclusively with a bid well-connected in Olympic circles.
Under this system, an India bid for 2036 promoted by influential IOC member Nita Ambani, from the family that is the richest in Asia, has looked strong.
However, Coventry’s strongest opponents in a seven-candidate election she won in March promised to consult more with their 100-plus IOC colleagues than was the case during Bach’s tightly controlled 12-year presidency.
Her presidency started on Tuesday in closed-door sessions with more than 70 IOC members in Lausanne. The result is a reset for the 2036 contest.
Still, Coventry said that a bid team from India would continue to make a scheduled visit to the IOC next week.
ATHLETICS ELECTION
Olympic gold medalists are among 11 candidates for two vacancies to be IOC members when athletes vote at the Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo Olympics in February next year.
Chinese pairs figure skater Cong Han, Canadian ski cross racer Marielle Thompson, Ukrainian aerials skier Oleksandr Abramenko and Swiss cross-country skier Dario Cologna would be on the ballot.
The two winners would be IOC members for eight years through the 2034 Salt Lake City Winter Games.
LONDON MEDALS
American 1,500-meter runner Shannon Rowbury was formally confirmed as the bronze medalist from the 2012 London Olympics nearly 13 years later.
The IOC reallocated the medals to take account of a doping ban for Tatyana Tomashova imposed in September last year by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Rowbury crossed the line in sixth place in London in a race notoriously tainted by doping cases for the runners who placed first, second and fourth. Abeba Aregawi of Ethiopia was upgraded to silver on Thursday. The gold medal was previously awarded to Maryam Yusuf Jamal of Bahrain.
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