Government invests in Olympic Village
May 13th, 2009
The Government is investing £324m of the Olympic Delivery Authority’s (ODA’s) budget in the Olympic Village, the Government and the ODA announced today.
Archive
Archive for May, 2009
Series on Olympic Congresses: Varna 1973
May 13th, 2009
The modern era of the Olympic Congress began in 1973 in Varna, Bulgaria, which was celebrating the 50th anniversary of its NOC. Lord Killanin, who had succeeded Avery Brundage as IOC President the previous year, presided over the Congress and directed the meetings with skill and dignity. Many NOCs and all Ifs were given the floor on equal terms and the delegates lived up to Killanin’s call to make the Congress not a forum for open attacks but sensible suggestion.
Springboard for new rule
Rethinking the idea of amateurism was at the centre of discussion, as it had been at practically all Congresses since 1894, but discussions at the Varna Congress were the springboard for the new rule which authorized financial assistance for elite level training. Within 20 years the Olympics were fully open to professionals.
‘Dream Team’
To understand the magnitude of this change you only have to think of the American “Dream Team” featuring basketball professionals such as Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Michael Jordan. Their victory in Barcelona in 1992 passed straight into Olympic folklore. And tennis, excluded from the Games since 1924, returned as a full medal sport open to professionals in 1988 when Steffi Graf became the first and only player to win the "Golden Slam" by adding the Olympic title to her four Grand Slam singles titles that year.
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Learn more about the 2009 Olympic Congress
Second Coordination Commission Visit To Sochi
May 12th, 2009
Under the leadership of IOC Member and Olympic champion Jean-Claude Killy, the IOC’s Coordination Commission for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games will visit the Russian host city this week for its second full visit. The Commission will spend two days (13-14 May) hearing from the Sochi Organising Committee and its partners about their progress since the Commission’s visit last year.
Sport at the Heart
During the visit, the Commission will examine a number of areas of Games preparations, such as sport, athletes’ services, construction, infrastructure, transport, marketing and technology. As always, Paralympic Games preparations will also be an important area of discussion throughout the week. This visit will also see the International Olympic Winter Federations attend part of the Coordination Commission, showing that even at this early stage of the project, sport is central in the thinking of the Games organisers.
Sochi 2014
Sochi was elected as the host city for the XXII Olympic Winter Games at the 119th IOC Session in Guatemala City on 4 July 2007. Sochi won the vote against the cities of Salzburg (Austria) and PyeongChang (Republic of Korea) in the second round of voting. The Russian city edged out PyeongChang 51 votes to 47, with Salzburg having been eliminated in round one. The Sochi Games will play host to the seven Olympic Winter sports currently on the Olympic programme and will run from 7 to 23 February 2014.
The power of sport for peace and development building
May 12th, 2009
What sport can contribute to mankind’s search for peace and development and, indeed, to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, was at the centre of the first International Forum on Sport, Peace and Development, which concluded today at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.
Almost 250 representatives from the Olympic Movement, the United Nations, non-governmental organisations and the academic world worked together to share knowledge, discuss best practice and find progressive solutions “to use the enormous potential of sport, its power of communication, its reach, its effect on the community and young people in particular, and its influence”, as IOC President Jacques Rogge said in his closing remarks.
Partnership: the key
However, sport itself has no power to deliver any of these outcomes. It has no authority to make or enforce peace. These are the mandates of the competent authorities such as governments and the United Nations. What sport can do, and has been doing, is to work with partners to provide the support of the vast network of sport, the influence of sport on young people, its reach and its resources. This is exactly what the delegates highlighted in the final recommendations of the Forum by asking “the IOC, together with the Office of the Special Adviser of the UN Secretary General on Sport for Development and Peace, to establish a Working Party to consider how best to consider ways of achieving a comprehensive exchange of information, expertise and experience to generate best international practice between the Olympic family and all organisations active in the field of sport, development and peace”.
Furthermore, they agreed that “the Olympic Movement and its partners [should] cooperate wherever possible to strengthen efforts to use sport and recreational programmes to overcome the growing health challenges facing the world, including obesity, poor nutrition and ill health”.
In fact, the 12-point recommendations adopted unanimously by the Forum address all stakeholders and efforts to promote peace and development through the power of sport, and above all encourage further action.
British Swimming Team visit Olympic Park to see Aquatics Centre progress
May 11th, 2009
The British Swimming Team, including double gold-medal winner Rebecca Adlington, visited the Aquatics Centre on Saturday as part of their preparations for this summer’s World Swimming Championship, a major stepping stone to the London 2012 Games.
New timelapse feature added to Olympic Park webcams
May 8th, 2009
A new timelapse feature has been added to the London 2012 webcams page.
Relive the Forum on Sport, Peace & Development
May 8th, 2009
The first-ever International Forum on Sport, Peace and Development was broadcasted live in its entirety on www.olympic.org/forum from the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. See details below.
Impressive themes
The Forum’s discussions will centre on how sport can contribute to development, peace and national cohesion. There are six main themes on the programme for the participants and web visitors:
- The potential of sport in the search for peace and development,
- Promoting a culture of peace among young people
- Sport for community and youth development
- Promotion of education and healthy life-styles through sport
- The Olympic Games: legacy for education, development and peace
- Capitalising on partnerships and networking
The Forum was held on the 7-8 May 2009
Clean-up of Olympic Park waterways begins
May 8th, 2009
A programme of dredging to revitalise the Olympic Park waterways has started.
Live webcast: Forum on Sport, Peace & Development
May 8th, 2009
The first-ever International Forum on Sport, Peace and Development will be broadcasted live today in its entirety on www.olympic.org/forum from the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. See details below.
Impressive themes
The Forum’s discussions will centre on how sport can contribute to development, peace and national cohesion. There are six main themes on the programme for the participants and web visitors:
- The potential of sport in the search for peace and development,
- Promoting a culture of peace among young people
- Sport for community and youth development
- Promotion of education and healthy life-styles through sport
- The Olympic Games: legacy for education, development and peace
- Capitalising on partnerships and networking
The Forum begins on 7 May 2009 at 9 a.m. CET
Day one: Relive the Forum on Sport, Peace & Development webcast
May 7th, 2009
Today, the first-ever International Forum on Sport, Peace and Development was broadcasted live in its entirety on www.olympic.org/forum from the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.
Impressive themes
The Forum’s discussions will centre on how sport can contribute to development, peace and national cohesion. There are six main themes on the programme for the participants and web visitors:
- The potential of sport in the search for peace and development,
- Promoting a culture of peace among young people
- Sport for community and youth development
- Promotion of education and healthy life-styles through sport
- The Olympic Games: legacy for education, development and peace
- Capitalising on partnerships and networking
The Forum begins on 7 May 2009 at 9 a.m. CET
