Kirsty Coventry (00:00):
... hosts for the 2028 edition of the Q Series, which was formerly known as the qualifying series. We are very excited about these four cities and we have Tokyo, Shanghai, Montreal, and Orlando. We have six sports that will be included, three by three basketball, beach volleyball, BMX freestyle, climbing, flag football, and skateboarding. And if any of you have been a part of the qualifying series, formally the new Q Series, you know that this is really a festival feel, sport, music, culture all brought together and we're very excited because those four cities do those things extremely well. So that will be an exciting lead into the road for LA 2028.
(00:54)
We also discussed the Youth Olympic Games 2030 and all of you know as part of the Fit for the Future process we're looking at our future strategies for the organization and what that looks like. And we took the decision based off of a number of data points, especially the one being in and around the last and most recent survey that we have done with our international federations and with our national Olympic committees asking them how they feel about the YOG, what they see, how they view it, is it a pathway? And we got some inconclusive results back, really.
(01:47)
And what we then decided is we need to pause and have a real reflection on why we're doing the Youth Olympic Games and we realized that across the movement it's very disjointed. There's not a true north star of why we're doing the Youth Olympic Games. So the EB decided to pause the 2030 process right now so there will not be an election in June and rather we need to take a step back and develop a youth strategy. This is extremely important.
(02:26)
We want to engage with young people. We want to be able to learn from them. We want to be able to encourage them to take part in sport. And we want to be able to engage with young people that allow for them to also give us really good feedback on our movement. And right now the Youth Olympic Games is not answering a number of those questions. So we are fully committed to the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar coming up very shortly and to those in 2028 in Italy and we'll continue to work with them. But we felt that it was the right time instead of awarding any future games to really look at what it is we want this event to be for us and what it is we want it to develop and how do we want to really and truly engage with the young audiences around the world. So that then led us into some further discussions.
(03:21)
The EB made a decision that will be proposed to the IOC session in June for the extension of two members, an IF representative and an NOC representative. The first being Lord Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics and Tricia Smith, President of the Canadian Olympic Committee, whom will both reach the age limit of 70 before their terms in their respective current roles end. So the executive board has asked and will be putting that forward to the June session to be proposed as an extension for them to fulfill their mandates as world athletic president and NOC of Canada president. We also proposed for Ivo Ferriani to become an honorary member, so we look forward to doing that.
(04:20)
Now, if I can take you all through the Fit for the Future process and go into a little bit deeper of a dive. Here I mentioned it at the beginning for exciting cities for the Olympic Q Series in 2028. At the bottom you can see the dates the 4th to the 7th of May for Tokyo, Shanghai, the 11th to 14th, Montreal the 1st to the 4th and Orlando the 8th to the 11th of June and that really I think sets a great platform and road into the LA 28 games. Unfit for the future, you know some of the working groups already. These are four new working groups since we all last got to speak that we have set up. The Olympic Qualifying Series working group is in two part. The one part was looking at the cities. The other part of their remit is to really go through and ensure we have a great business analysis for the Q Series and what that looks like.
(05:25)
The Olympic Games Delivery Working Group is going to be led by Tony Estanguet, you all know very well and here this is a subgroup coming off of the Olympic program group. This is where we want to ensure that while we are strengthening the games, we're reinforcing the experience for all of the stakeholders and the entire movement. We're doing that while containing costs and complexities and reducing complexities where we can. And that is really also asking the group to look at and assess the uniformed levels of services that are required across the Olympic Games and across our stakeholders and being able to ensure that we can really look at that current model, challenge it and find new ways of containing costs and complexities.
(06:19)
Well, the next working group is the autonomy, ethics and good governance. This is something we heard from our stakeholders, is extremely important, very important for ourselves, but even more so on how do we and how can we continue to educate our Olympic movement, how do we help with this specific area and also how do we hold our Olympic movement accountable? What does that look like? And obviously while respecting autonomy, but also enabling the Olympic movement to continue to be that guardian in a constructive and supportive manner. And this we believe really will allow for our movement to be strengthened and to show the integrity and autonomy and credibility of the Olympic movement. Better World Through Sport, our Chair is of Auvita, here they are really looking at the unique global position that we have and then analyzing how we can deliver the transformative power that we have through sport.
(07:29)
What does that look like? Are we an advocator? Do we convene? Do we implement? At what parts of the different programs do we do that? And trying to also coming back to being very strategic with single points that we want to get across the line, being able to ensure that it's clear for everybody. When we talk about a better world through sport, everyone knows how we're doing that and what that looks like. Then as I said, the Olympic Q Series now, they are really their first part of the remit, which was looking at the cities. The second part is really being able to define a sustainable business model, guaranteeing long-term commercial viability and potential scalabilities of these series, so we're looking forward to them coming back to us with some of that. We spoke about athletes and I'm going to pass over to our athletic athlete director, Kaveh. So Kaveh will walk us through where we are with Fit for the Future and what we shared and discussed with the executive board.
Kaveh Mehrabi (08:36):
Thank you very much, President. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, everyone. Under the athletes pillar of the Fit for Future framework, President, you have tasked IOC Athlete Commission to come up with a strategic framework on what we will do as an organization in terms of supporting and empowering athletes. Looking at the lifecycle of the athletes, there are five strategic parities that the IOC United Commission has identified and recognized and first and foremost start with athlete representation. It's about how do we empower that community, the athlete representative, what standard and criteria we have for them in terms of being effective and efficient in the role and equally at the same time, what is the standard that we expect from different stakeholders across the Olympic movement in supporting their actual representative? Because we want them to be effective, we want them to be empowered and we think that is the starting point to have athlete first movement.
(09:39)
Moving on then to when we look at the life cycle of athletes, there is first and foremost as an organization, we have the Olympic Games and we really want to make sure that we focus on those 17 days in terms of enhancing the athlete experience, making sure that the key elements of the performance environment is protected and also that uniqueness and universality of the games is protected. So when we talk about the unique elements of the Olympic Games, you all think of the Olympic Village, the fact that we are able to bring athletes from all over the world under the same roof to compete with the same rules. And ultimately this is what it contributes to making sure that the Olympic Games continue to be a pinnacle moment in athletics career of all athletes.
(10:25)
Then when you go outside these 17 days, when you look at road to the games and the road or the journey after the Olympic Games, we want to make sure that we have concrete and tangible programs and support programs to support on their journey to qualify for the games and also once they're finished competing as they are looking into the next stage of their life again, we are there side by side by them to support them in that sporting career transition. And here we see huge opportunities with our commercial partners, with the networks and all the resources that they have. Then thinking about the environment that athletes are competing and that's the fourth objective. We want to make sure that this environment continues to have the high standards of integrity.
(11:12)
It's protected from any sort of competition manipulation and of course safeguarded from any sort of the abuse or harassment. And here it's very important to, again, acknowledge that what is our role as the IOC and where do we see our role will be as an advocate or as a convener for the entire Olympic movement. So we will be looking into what the IOC will be doing directly and where do we work with our partners and stakeholders to ensure that this environment continue to be having the highest standard of the integrity and coming to the fifth and the final objective is really about that Olympian community.
(11:51)
When we have athletes qualifying for the games, when they have that special moment at the Olympic Games, we want them to really feel that they are special and they are part of a very exclusive and special Olympian community and here there is rights and responsibility that comes with it. There are role models. There are people that everyone in the society and all the youth will look up to. So we want to make sure that of course they can benefit from various special benefits and rights that it will belong to this very special community. At the same time, we want to work with them to make sure that they are aware of their responsibility vis-a-vis the society and the wider Olympic movement. With that, quite a short review of the strategic framework. Then of course we have number of different working group president as you diluted to and kind of comes to the first point that we mentioned is that we want to make sure athletes are represented across all different working groups and bodies that influence the strategic roadmap of the Olympic movement.
(12:52)
So you have it on the screen. I'm not going to name them one by one, but as you can clearly see, the athlete representative of the IOC are represented across all the different working groups to make sure that Athlete's View is in the center of every discussion and every decision that we make. Thank you, President.
Kirsty Coventry (13:11):
Thank you, Kave. And with that, we'll give you a update on our Olympic program working group and I'll pass over to our sports director, Pierre.
Pierre Ducrey (13:22):
Thank you very much, Madam President. Happy to be able to provide you ... Oh, better with a microphone, I suppose. Thank you very much, Madam President. Happy to have the opportunity to give an update on the Olympic program. You have here the group, which is assembled under the chairmanship of Karl Stoss. When it comes to the remit that we have, I think there are three elements to really remember. The first one is this group as an objective to put in place a framework that allows to control the size of the games. That's very important, clear mission given by the president. The second element will be that we find
Pierre Ducrey (14:00):
... a pathway for the sports to be able to enter into the Olympic program, but also to be removed from the Olympic program. Those pathway today are not very clear, so the group is reflecting on how we can create those pathways. And lastly and very importantly, that all those decisions can be understood by all the stakeholders, so that transparency is at the very core of how we approach this review of the Olympic Games framework.
(14:25)
A few updates regarding the approach. The group has been studying in details what will be the best level of doing the review of the program, what is the best unit of the Olympic program that can help conduct this review, and the feeling is really to use the discipline within a sport. Why? Because disciplines are the elements that are the closest to the fields of play, to the venues, so moving a discipline in or out has a direct impact on an organizing committee because it connects really with the field of play. Knowing this, we have studied also what could be a clear definition that the group can use and that the movement would use to define disciplines, because at this stage it is not something that has a clear definition.
(15:14)
So we are move on to define discipline in the way that is currently on the screen. A discipline is one or more events within a sport that requires either a dedicated field of play or a significant modification of a shared field of play with another Olympic discipline, generally involving a separate group of athletes. A lot of different dimension, but this definition allows us to do something quite important, which is to divide our own program in subparts that we will then analyze individually as part of the review.
(15:50)
When it comes to how our program would look like with this definition, this is a reflection for summer. This is a representation of the situation for the Paris discipline, so you have an understanding where this number is coming from, but it breaks some of the sport into a single-discipline sport when there is not multiple discipline within the sport, and a number of multi-discipline sport, which leads, if we take again the Paris example, to 47 disciplines.
(16:18)
We have done the same exercise for winter and this is the breakdown for winter, with 20 disciplines being part of the program using, again, as a reference, the latest Olympic Winter Games, Milano Cortina 2026. So this is the framework that the group is using, with a view to try and present the approach and more elements to the way we're going to analyze all of these different units at the session at the end of June. Back to you, Madam President.
Kirsty Coventry (16:52):
Thank you, Pierre and Kaveh. And with that, we will also like to make one final discussion point. We had updates from our Games department on our upcoming Games, so we have had coordination commissions in Takar in LA and we had all of those reports shared with us, and we also had a brief discussion in and around the French Alps. And just also wanted to clarify, as we had been getting a number of questions and clarities, I think even through to the sports department and to others in and around the French Alps program for 2030, we will vote for the program in June, but we have taken the decision that no summer sports and no crossover sports will be in that program and so it will just be snow and ice. And so with that, I will pass back to you, Mark.
Mark (17:58):
Thank you very much, President. Okay. We're ready to take your questions. As usual, you need to raise your hand and wait to be called, and then obviously make sure you have your microphone on. Let's go straight ... we have already quite a few people who want to ask questions, so we're going to go to Reuters, to Karolos Grohmann from Reuters. Karolos, your question please.
Karolos Grohmann (18:18):
Afternoon. Can you hear me well?
Mark (18:21):
Yep, we can.
Kirsty Coventry (18:22):
Hi. We can hear you.
Karolos Grohmann (18:23):
Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam President. A question obviously regarding Belarus, which we got earlier. In that decision, there's a reference regarding an ongoing review, an ongoing legal review regarding the Russian Olympic Committee, and also the whole anti-doping system in that country. Do you have a framework, time framework, for when you would expect that review in general to be completed, so as to have a decision on Russia? Thank you.
Kirsty Coventry (18:56):
Thank you, Karolos. We do not have a dedicated timeline. As you rightfully said, in the statement that was released earlier, it was discussed in the executive board with great concern, the most recent information which led to the World Anti Doping Agency looking into a potential doping allegation. We do not know how long that will take, but you also know that in 2016 I was still an athlete, and it is a huge importance for me to do whatever we can to ensure that the field of play, whenever any athletes are coming back to competition, it is the cleanest and fairest field of play that we can provide. So we will work with WADA, and WADA have ensured us that they will keep us in the loop of anything that may come up, but there right now is no timeline to that.
Mark (19:59):
Thank you very much, Karolos. Let's go to Robert Livingstone from GamesBids.com. Robert, your question. We can see you, so off you go.
Robert Livingstone (20:07):
Thanks, Mark. Thank you, President. I have a question about the Olympic Esports games. There had been reports circulating recently that the Esports Commission has paused. Can you confirm if that's the case, and if so, what's the status of the Olympic Esports Games? Can you give us an update on that please? Thank you.
Kirsty Coventry (20:25):
Yeah, sure. Thank you, Robert. I appreciate that. Yes, so we had a Esport Commission. It actually should have been in my update. I updated the executive board as well. [Inaudible 00:20:38].
Speaker 1 (21:54):
... the development of better diagnostics, better therapeutics, better vaccines for pathogens that we ...
Mark (21:58):
Please, off you go.
Rob (22:01):
Hi, there. Thanks as always there for doing this. A question to the presidents about the Belarus decision and on Russia. What is the decision now based on? Is it now a decision based on whether or not Russia is complying with doping regulations, which will lead to their reinstatement, or do you still see the Ukrainian concerns, the fact they don't believe Russia should be readmitted while the war is still going on? And interlinked into that is there is a perception that the IOC is retreating on human rights now because it's too complicated, if you're getting calls for the likes of Israel, maybe even the U.S. to be banned, that now banning countries is too complicated in this world. So is that why you might be looking to bring Russia back?
Kirsty Coventry (22:53):
Hi, Rob. Thank you for that long question. We're all having a good chuckle as you kept going and going. No, I appreciate it, Rob. Thank you. I think as you all know, and as most of you have been on this journey with me for the last, as I think our first vice president, Noelle, pointed out, for the last 318 days since taking the presidency, and after our first executive board in September and then again the Olympic Summit, neutrality, and our remit is sport, right? We've got to figure out what does that mean. And I think we're doing that and I think you can all see that we're doing it, and we made it very clear that we want all athletes to be able to participate. And so this decision, I believe and the executive board believes, shows that.
(23:43)
When it comes to the Russian Olympic committee, there has been some very constructive exchanges, but the difference, the Belarusian National Olympic Committee was never suspended and they've always been in good standing. The Russian Olympic Committee is still suspended. We are not going to merge the anti-doping allegations that are there now. That is also for the World Anti Doping Agency, but because of the history, it was brought up to the executive board in the discussions today. And as I said earlier, I was an athlete in 2016 and it was messy. I think all of you were reporting on it, and I want to ensure that any athletes coming back, we can ensure the athlete community at large that it's a fair field of play. That's really very important for me, but we're not merging the two. The Legal Affairs Commission are still reviewing the Russian Olympic Committee, and when they have finished their review they will come to the executive board, and that has not happened yet.
Mark (25:01):
Thank you, Rob.
Rob (25:01):
Thanks so much.
Mark (25:01):
Thank you. Let's go to the States. Joe Donahue from Birds Nest Media. Joe?
Joe Donahue (25:07):
Yes. Thank you, Mark.
Mark (25:08):
Thank you.
Joe Donahue (25:09):
And good morning from Philadelphia here in the United States. A question for the president. Madam President, you just said that the WADA investigation's going to be separated from some of the other concerns. In your view, what are the specific steps that the Russian Olympic Committee needs to take in order to have their suspension removed? And then I have a question for Kaveh as well. Kaveh, with new sports, when athletes come on from new disciplines, is there any special concern that you share? Any special attention that you give those athletes coming in from a new sport or from a new discipline that may be joining the Olympic Games?
Kirsty Coventry (26:04):
Hi, Joe. Thank you so much for your questions. So on the first part, the specific items, that really sits with the Legal Affairs Commission, and obviously you can understand, for good governance that remains there. It doesn't sit with myself and with the executive board, and that's how it has to be. I can pass to James Macleod if he wants to add anything specific to that. But I think in order to also allow for processes to be followed, that's really all I can share with you on the specificities in that regard. James, do you have anything to add?
James Macleod (26:43):
Thank you, President. Hello, Joe. Yes. I mean, the situation is with the Legal Affairs Commission. The Russian Olympic Committee has been very constructive in the dialogue relating to the reasons why they were suspended at the beginning, and have been able to provide us, the Legal Affairs Commission in particular, a lot of documentation that is very interesting and useful for the commission to look at. And so we can't prejudge what the commission will say, and as the president said, a report will go from the commission to the executive board for a decision.
Kirsty Coventry (27:18):
Kaveh?
Kaveh Mehrabi (27:19):
Thank you, President. Thank you, Joe, for your question, a very important one when you talk about the new sports and the athletes that eventually we'll be able to welcome within the Olympian community. Maybe just an interesting fact is that actually, even within our current program, 70% of the summer athletes, they get to go to only one Olympic games. So at every edition of the Games, we are dealing with a lot of athletes who have not gone to the Games, so that's very important for us. That's why we want to support them on that journey to get to the Games, and we want to make sure that the Olympic Games itself is truly a unique experience. So from our perspective, we treat all athletes equally. This
Kaveh Mehrabi (28:00):
This is a huge opportunity to also expand to new sporting communities from the [inaudible 00:28:05] perspective. So again, we see it as a huge, huge opportunity and we are there to support them on that way, on that journey to the Olympic Games. And I'm pretty sure Pierre will add to it also from International Federation. Thank you.
Pierre Ducrey (28:18):
Yes, thank you for this question. It is clearly a concern and a focus from the Olympic program working group to understand what will be the impact of a sport being entered into the program or being removed from the program. And that sport or their athletes would need to be accompanied by the IOC, by the organizing committee, also of the respective edition of the games to make sure we can facilitate this transition one way or the other. It's really important that we have measures in place to do so, to facilitate any transition that will be connected with the Olympic program.
Mark (28:56):
Okay.
Pierre Ducrey (28:57):
Perfect. Thank you.
Mark (28:57):
Thank you, Joe. I'm going to go to Graham Dunbar from AP. Graham. Yep. Graham Dunbar, can you hear us, Graham? Yeah.
Graham Dunbar (29:11):
Pressing on mute.
Mark (29:12):
Yeah, off you go.
Graham Dunbar (29:13):
I've come through. Excellent. Thank you very much, Mark. And thank you very much President. One thing on fellow Russia, just to clarify with what's before the legal commission at the moment, are you involved in any legal suits in Swiss courts brought by Russian interests at the moment, which might be a complicating factor? Is there anything you can clarify on that?
(29:36)
And on the main question, it's three months now since you put everyone on notice in Milan that there would be some uncomfortable conversations and decisions ahead about change that's coming. Is there anything you can say about who's been taken out of their comfort zone so far, who have any kind of concerns? You could imagine there might be some people in Monaco maybe, possibly even Madrid, but is there any detail you can give on that?
Kirsty Coventry (30:04):
Hi, Graham. Thank you for your questions. To your first question, not to any of our knowledge. So if you know something, please do share with us. But no, not to our knowledge. On the second question, I would like to think everyone's getting pushed out of their comfort zone to some degree, because I think that's how we learn. And I think that's how we get better and I think that's how you help us get better. So I really do think that... And I have to also thank the team here, all the directors, all of their teams underneath them, because I know probably half the time I'm asking a lot of questions or asking them to do things and they're thinking, "What is she doing? Why is she asking us to do these things?" But there is a rhyme to the reason and I'm really happy to see that we're all working in one direction, which is really nice.
(30:57)
And yes, I think that's part of my heritage of being an athlete, pushing in our comfort zones. I think it's only really when you're uncomfortable that you learn to grow and learn to get better. So hopefully everyone's doing that along with me.
Mark (31:14):
Yeah, it's very uncomfortable here at the moment, Graham. Okay. Thank you very much, Graham. Let's go to Wakako Yuki from Yomiuri Shimbun. Wakako.
Wakako Yuki (31:25):
Thank you. Can you hear me?
Mark (31:26):
Yes, we can. Please go ahead.
Wakako Yuki (31:28):
Great. Thank you very much. And hello President. Good to see you. Thank you so much for choosing Tokyo as one of the four hosts for Q-Series. I understand this could be one of the earliest opportunity for the IOC's new policy on protection of female category being applied involving SRY gene test. What are the things that the IOC may foresee as a point of concern, education, because those Q series participants would be minor, many of them are minor and also some of them may want to conduct onsite test as well. So what are the advices from the IOC?
(32:19)
Also, one quick, YOG, sorry, as usual. YOG, you talked about why YOG not answering these points, the participation of youth and the importance that you believe or the IOC believe, of the sports for the youth. And what are the direction that we are looking at? And do we understand that YOG, as we know of, would cease to exist or not? Thank you.
Kirsty Coventry (32:53):
Thank you, Wakako. Your first question, I'll pass over to our sports director because he's got more of that information, but we will, as we said in the female category, that will come into implementation for us for LA. So not before, but obviously we will work with the international federations, but I'll ask Pierre to add some more details to you for that.
(33:18)
For the YOG, it comes down to ensuring that we have a really strong youth strategy and right now we are finding that the YOG means different things to different people. And so we're trying to get everyone to move together. How do we want to engage with youth? What is the impact? Do we want it to be a pathway or is it trying to speak to a younger audience, a younger generation? And in today's world, as you know with technology, that is just rapidly changing in how we do that.
(33:50)
And so we felt that it was just really necessary, even though we were quite pretty far down the line with 2030, and the potential hosts for 2030, we really felt that it was necessary to pull back and just take a breath and say, "Let's get a really strong youth strategy. Let's be very clear on why we want to engage with young people. Then we can decide how we're going to do that." And it might look different across. Okay. Thank you. Pierre.
Pierre Ducrey (34:24):
Thank you very much. So yes, indeed for the release of the female category policy, it was clearly articulated that it would apply only from the Los Angeles games, meaning to not the qualifiers happening before the games formally... So the OQS is basically a group of qualifiers put together by the IOC but still under the responsibility of the respective international federations. So it will be up to them for each of the competition part of the OQS to decide if they are implementing this policy before LA or for the games in LA.
Mark (35:05):
Thanks, Pierre. Okay. We're going to have a question from Ukraine, Artem Khudolieiev, one of our regular questioners from Golovin, UA. Artem, If you are there, yeah, please go ahead and ask your question.
Artem Khudolieiev (35:19):
Yeah, my questions is to Kirsty Coventry. You have said several times that the Russian Olympic Committee has been very constructive, but as the president of Russian Olympic commentary, Mr. Degtyarev recently illegally visited the Ukrainian Crimea annexing by Russia. He very often makes statements in support of Russia war against Ukraine. He participates in propaganda events in support of the war. So my question, do I consider his action to be constructive as well?
Kirsty Coventry (35:49):
Hi Artem, and thank you for your question. These are also... All this information is given to us and is passed on to the Legal Affairs Commission. And these are exactly the points that the Legal Affairs Commission review and is why they're still reviewing, and is why the ROC is still right now under suspension. So we have to look as an organization and listen to all sides of the story and that's what we feel that we're doing and this is why we are where we are. Thank you.
Mark (36:30):
Thank you very much. Okay. Let's go to Xin Hua, GA, from [inaudible 00:36:37].
Xin Hua (36:36):
Thanks, Mark. Can you hear me?
Mark (36:38):
Hello. Yeah, please go ahead.
Xin Hua (36:39):
Thank you. Good evening. Good evening from Beijing, President. My question is about the size of the games. As we all know, that the LA Olympics features 36 record-breaking sports number. We saw this quarter also exceeding 10,500. Regarding the 2032 Brisbane games, so I'm wondering when will the LC determine the sports discipline and additional sport for these games? And will the scale and the number of sports significantly reduce comparing with LA? Thank you.
Kirsty Coventry (37:22):
Thank you so much and I appreciate your questions. So with regards to the size of the games, this is exactly the work that Pierre and the Olympic Program working group are looking at and reviewing. And as we shared with you earlier, the definitions now for the disciplines is very important. There's a lot of work going into that. As we get closer to June, we will not be deciding on the 2032 program in June, but we do want to try and ensure that we have a decision made in Q4 of this year, or Q1 earlier at the latest of next year for 2032.
(38:03)
I do think the size will change. I think I've said it numerous times that in LA we have 36 sports and Pierre, I think it's fair to say that in Brisbane we don't expect to see 36 sports. And even in their host city contract, that is not what they are required to deliver. So I think it's a really good time as we've seen across the different sectors of the Fit for the Future, it's really a good time to review, which is what we're doing and what the Olympic program is looking at right now with all the work that they are doing. Pierre, anything to add?
Pierre Ducrey (38:42):
Maybe I'll just comment the very good explanation you gave, Madam President, to what I was presenting earlier, which is that we are looking at breaking down the program into disciplines for the very reason you just mentioned, to try and understand how we can decomplexify and reduce the size of the games by using units which are very closely connected with one of the element that creates the most challenges when it comes to delivering the games, and that's the venue. So the very focus of the work we are doing is grounded into having the complexity of the game as part of the analysis.
Mark (39:18):
Thank you very much, Pierre. Okay. We're going to go to the states to Salt Lake, Lisa Roche from Deseret News. Lisa. Hope you're there.
Lisa Roche (39:31):
I am.
Mark (39:31):
Yes.
Lisa Roche (39:33):
Thank you, Mark.
Mark (39:34):
I see you. Off you go.
Lisa Roche (39:35):
That mute button. And this question is for President Coventry. I want to make sure I understand the decision on no addition of summer sports for the French Alps games. That is a decision only for 2030, and a future decision on whether summer sports would be added for 2034 and beyond is yet to come. I see you nodding. And just to follow up on that, I'm wondering what the look at, the review of sports editions, especially for the winter edition, mean for adding new types of sports at a games, if that's part of the consideration? Thank you.
Kirsty Coventry (40:26):
Hi, Lisa. Thank you. Yes, you're exactly right. So for 2030, we have taken the decision, no crossover sports, no summer sports, but the Olympic program in phase two of their work will look at all avenues and yes, that would then potentially lend itself to 2034.
(40:47)
In terms of the working group under Pierre's leadership, is reviewing exactly as you just said. How right now would new sports come on? How would new disciplines be added? How would disciplines potentially come off the program? What would that look like? How could there be more fluidity in that program? So we are looking at it. I think as the executive board, we discuss this quite a lot today in terms of, we feel we need to regain the control of the program and we're the leaders, this is our product, so we should regain that control and we should look after it and we should figure out how we want potentially new sports, innovative sports and disciplines to come onto the program.
(41:37)
But we're also under the very big realization that we can't continue to just get bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger. That's not the answer either. So Pierre and the team are very much on top of it and doing it. And I would hand over to him if he has anything additional to add to that question. Thank you, Lisa.
Pierre Ducrey (41:55):
Maybe just to confirm that this process is being designed to apply similarly
Pierre Ducrey (42:00):
Similarly to winter and summer, there will be no difference. We'll apply exactly the same process. We've already decided the sports program for 2030. So now in June we will finalize the disciplines, the events and the quota. When it comes to subsequent edition of the games on the winter side, we have not yet set the calendar for the review of the disciplines, but it is part of the mandate of the group that we will be looking as much as possible in advance so that we can give clarity to the NOCs, to the IFs, to the OCOG on what the program is going to be.
Mark (42:34):
Thank you very much, Lisa. Let's go to another friend of the IOC, Ed Hula. Ed for Rings Roundup, I think now you are. So, Ed, your question please. I think you need to unmute yourself, seems to be the issue.
Ed Hula (42:53):
Let's see.
Mark (42:54):
I can hear you. Go ahead, Ed, please.
Ed Hula (42:57):
Okay. It's good now. All right, thanks very much. Regarding the program of the games, when you talk about complexity isn't really the economy, the economics of the games the bottom line that's really mostly affected by this growth in the program?
Kirsty Coventry (43:20):
Hi, Ed. Thank you so much. So I think when we're talking about the complexity, it goes with cost, right? The cost and complexity. How are we going to contain the cost? How are we going to reduce the cost? How are we going to reduce the complexity? And what the Olympic Program Group has also seen is that when we add additional sports, additional disciplines that need new venues, that's really where we see additional costs and complexities coming into play.
(43:51)
That's where we see potentially more widespread games, which adds complexity to National Olympic committees, to broadcasters, to athletes, to ourselves. It changes the experience for all the stakeholder groups. So we're looking at everything holistically. How does it all play into each other? And yes, ultimately, how can we help to contain and reduce the cost and the complexity and the economics of the games?
(44:21)
And I think there's not just one area that can do it. I think we've been able to identify many different areas across our games and across our ecosystem that could add value into reducing the cost and the complexity of the games.
Ed Hula (44:37):
Thank you.
Mark (44:38):
Thank you, Ed. Okay. I think we've got time probably for two more questions. So we're going to go to Jacquelin Magnay from the Australian and then Rachel Pretti we're going to finish off with, I think. So Jacquelin, if you are there.
Jacquelin Magnay (44:52):
Hi, Mark. How are you?
Mark (44:53):
Yeah, very good. We can hear you. So off you go.
Jacquelin Magnay (44:56):
Good. I'm just wondering, Madam President, how much input the Brisbane 2032 organizing committee will have for the program given that the concept is about infrastructure and venue costs. How much say do they have in the discussions that you're having? And is it a matter of them perhaps deciding towards the end of the process, you give them a few options or are they involved at the moment?
Kirsty Coventry (45:27):
Hi, Jacquelin. Thanks for your question. The OCOGs are always involved to a point. I think the process in which we are going right now is really identifying and in June we'll be voting on criteria that we would've worked through with the International Federations that they would've agreed. That can be very transparent in trying to analyze the sports as we move forward. So that's where we are and that's a sort of a phased approach.
(45:59)
So we need to get that part first. And then there's always been discussions in and around existing sports, additional sports, new sports, OCOG sports. We really, again, want to take back that control of our program and not just pass a hot potato onto Brisbane. And I think, Jacquelin, you know, LA is 36 sports in LA. In London we were 26 sports. I've said this again numerous times. I don't think in Brisbane we're going to see 36 sports.
(46:29)
So this is the right time to have these kinds of conversations in a really transparent manner and we will work with Brisbane just like we have with the other OCOGs in ensuring that they have a program that they're proud of and that we're proud of. And we will do it at the right time. So right now it's a lot of focus just on how do we set this process up because it's never been done before. And once we have that process, then we will go into those conversations with them.
Mark (47:01):
Thanks, Jacquelin. Okay. I think we're going to probably do our last question now. Rachel Pretti from L'Équipe if you are there. Probably in French.
Rachel Pretti (47:13):
[foreign language 00:47:15].
Mark (47:13):
[foreign language 00:47:15].
Rachel Pretti (47:15):
Thank You, Mark. Nice to see you. Thanks for the last question.
Mark (47:19):
Yeah, that's very good.
Rachel Pretti (47:21):
If you agree, I will speak in French.
Mark (47:24):
[foreign language 00:47:26].
Rachel Pretti (47:28):
So thank you very much for this question. I have two small questions since I'm the last one. Maybe I can do that. For the feminity tests, Madam President, did the NOCs answer you? Are they worried? Do they ask many questions? What will happen between now and the games? What has been foreseen in France and the Norway above all where those tests are not allowed?
(47:58)
And then for the French Alps, did you speak about the ice rink in Nice and did you think about separating men and women having two sorts of competitions? Thank you very much.
Kirsty Coventry (48:28):
Okay. Hi, Rachel. Thank you very much for your questions. I will probably pass the first one over to James since he's in charge of the National Olympic Committees and has more insight on the two NOCs in question regarding the female category. And then on the French Alps, we did not go into a deep discussion around venues. We're waiting for an update and we have a team that will be speaking to them in the next couple of days. And once we've done that, then we can always come back to you.
(49:02)
But as right now, there was no discussion, a deep dive discussion in on any venues or separation of any of the sports or disciplines regarding to the French Alps.
Rachel Pretti (49:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
Thank you, Rachel. Contacts with NOCs have been very positive in what goes with the IOC new politics. Some NOCs like Norway contacted us, of course, and in June we will organize a webinar for the NOCs so that they can ask all their questions and we will answer that in June. I don't know on what day, but it will be in June.
Mark (49:53):
Merci, Rachel. Thank you very much. And I think with that, I think we have... Yes, we're coming up to 5- 2, so I think we've answered a lot of questions today. Thank you very much. I'm being asked to give everyone online a reminder that the accreditation process for Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games is open and you can apply on the portal on our website until mid-June. There's a link or there will be a link in the Zoom chat box. So thank you president. Thank you directors and we're going to get back into our discomfort zone now. So thank you.
Kirsty Coventry (50:29):
Thank you, everyone. I...