Countdown To The Olympics

The Host City Contract for the 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck in 2012 was signed in the Tyrolean capital by IOC President Jacques Rogge, the Host City and the Austrian National Olympic Committee (NOC) authorities.  President Rogge, accompanied by an IOC delegation including IOC administration representatives, visited several competition venues where the events will be held in 2012. He also met a group of young students who appeared on the promotional video clip for the Innsbruck bid. “We are glad to be back in Innsbruck where the extraordinary 1964 and 1976 Olympic Winter Games were staged”, said the IOC President at the press conference.

Given the short preparation time (three years), the IOC President underlined that Innsbruck was a strong partner, in terms of already existing first-class venues; Innsbruck’s high degree of competence in organising international sports events; the enthusiastic population that has an excellent understanding of winter sports; and the full support of the local, regional and national authorities.

 

Moreover, the Innsbruck 2012 bid excelled through its good understanding of the cultural and educational component of the Youth Olympic Games. The event will thus offer an excellent platform to create a true community between the youth of the world and the participants by learning and sharing experiences. Specific cultural and on line activities will spread the fever beyond the Austrian borders. “Innsbruck can count on the IOC and particularly on the Coordination Commission under the leadership of IOC member Gian-Franco Kasper,” added President Rogge.

 

 

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The 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games will encompass all seven Olympic winter sports: bobsleigh (bobsleigh, skeleton), biathlon, curling, ice hockey, luge, skating (short-track, speed skating, figure skating) and skiing. The latter will feature Alpine, cross-country, freestyle, Nordic combined, ski jumping and snowboarding. Details of the events and qualification systems will be elaborated in close relationship with the International Olympic Winter Sports Federations in the near future.

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For further information, please contact the IOC Communications Department, Tel: +41 21 621 60 00, email: pressoffice@olympic.org

Today the International Olympic Committee (IOC) launched the registration process for the first ever International Forum on Sport for Peace and Development, which will take place at The Olympic Museum in Lausanne from 7 to 8 May 2009.

As a socially responsible organisation, the IOC is engaged in sports development at grass-roots level, aiming to increase access to physical activity worldwide as well as to improve social and human wellbeing at large. Moreover, many other international participants within and outside the sports family are working in this area, thereby recognising the value of sport as a tool for development and peace-building across the globe.

Topics for Discussion
Under the patronage the International Olympic Truce Foundation (IOTF) and the IOC’s International Relations Commission, the Forum discussions will centre on themes such as the value of sport in supporting the community’s search for peace and in achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals; how to maximise the impact of sport through partnerships with UN bodies; how to enhance youth empowerment through sport for development and peace programmes; and how to better measure the impact of physical activity on the development of deprived populations. Furthermore, the question of how to pool resources and support to invest in sport for development cost-effectively is a question of the moment, which will be discussed among the Forum participants.

Target Groups

The Forum will feature experts from the field who will share their know-how. The insights gleaned at the event will be taken to the Olympic Congress in October in Copenhagen.
The Forum is also aimed at representatives of the Olympic family, governmental and non-governmental organisations, UN bodies, academic and research organisations and the media. Save your place now by registering through the forms below!

Insights into field work

As part of its latest initiatives, the IOC joined forces with the Somali Olympic Committee to provide sporting equipment for athletics, basketball, football, volleyball and table tennis to local young people. This project aimed to help revive the sports programme of a nation which conflict and lack of facilities have severely penalised over the years, depriving its young people of healthy pastimes.  In addition, inter-regional sports activities are planned to facilitate the dialogue between the various communities involved.

Similarly, the IOC recently partnered with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in a project to clear outdoor sports areas of landmines in Azerbaijan. The newly created “safe play areas”, which have been rigged with basic sports equipment, have enabled local children to move freely and play like any other children in the world, which also promotes a healthier lifestyle in this war-affected area.

A preliminary programme will be published in due course here, www.olympic.org/lausanneforum

 

 

Registration form (Word document)

  List of countries requiring a visa

 

 Learn more about the IOC’s activities in the field of development through sport

 

Any questions? Please contact lausanneforum@olympic.org

In the framework of its Postgraduate Research Grant Programme, the IOC Olympic Studies Centre (OSC) has chosen seven research projects for their academic excellence and for their potential for developing the Olympic Movement.

 

The authors of these projects will benefit from a scholarship which will allow them to consult the OSC’s collections (unique collections of more than one million archived documents, publications, official reports, photos and films). The results of their research should be published at the end of the year. The seven candidates selected and their chosen projects are:

- Ana Adi (University of the West of Scotland, UK / Romania): New Media, Human Rights and the Olympic Movement – a literature review.

- Pascal Charitas (University of Paris-Sud XI Orsay, France): Les conditions d’émergence du développement sportif olympique en Afrique: analyse comparée entre le Royaume-Uni et la France.

- Kathryn Henne (University of California (Irvine), USA): A historiographic investigation of anti-doping regulation and enforcement in international sport.

- Jialing Luo (University of Cambridge, UK / China): Olympism and nation-building: Impacts of the Beijing Olympics on traditional courtyard neighbourhood.

- Lynn Minnaert (University of Westminster, UK / Belgium): Database and analysis of recent Olympic non-infrastructural programmes that specifically target socially excluded groups.

- Nancy Stevenson (University of Westminster, UK): London 2012: The impacts of cultural legacy programmes on local communities.

- Jason Charles Vuic (Bridgewater College, USA): Multiculturalism through Olympism: the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics.

The winners were selected by a committee comprising world-renowned experts for the quality of their research linked to Olympism and/or for their involvement in Olympic studies. This year, 40 candidature files were submitted from 19 countries, addressing a variety of themes such as the Olympic values and multiculturalism, the different aspects of the Games’ legacy, the role of the Olympic Movement in society and international relations.

The selection committee for the 2009 edition of the programme comprised the following members: Gudrun Doll-Tepper (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany), Beatriz García (University of Liverpool, Great Britain), Bruce Kidd (University of Toronto, Canada), Hai Ren (Beijing Sport University, China), Alberto Reppold (Universidade Federale do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), Kristine Toohey (Griffith University Gold Coast, Australia), Stephan Wassong (Liverpool Hope University, Great Britain) as well as Nuria Puig (Head of University Relations – IOC), Philippe Blanchard (Director of the IOC Information management) and OSC representatives.