March 12, 2023, 9:11 p.m.
We continue our series of publications on the activities of global international organizations. We refer to such organizations as structures whose members are the vast majority of countries. An important feature of such organizations is that the rules and decisions they adopt actively influence the formation of a certain area of human interests - politics, economics, justice, sports, etc. Today we will focus on the International Olympic Committee.
General characteristics of the International Olympic Committee
General characteristics of the International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (hereinafter referred to as the IOC) is an international organization established to revive the Olympic Games and promote the Olympic movement. Among the IOC's goals is to promote sport and Olympic values in society with a focus on the youth audience. The IOC is composed of 206 National Olympic Committees (hereinafter referred to as NOCs). The organization is headquartered in Lausanne. The organization is headed by a president. The official languages of the IOC are English and French.
The IOC headquarters in Lausanne. Photo: Wikipedia
The IOC was founded in Paris in 1894 on the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin. The first president of the organization was a Greek businessman and philologist Demetrius Vikelas. It is interesting to note that among the IOC presidents were participants of the Olympic Games. In particular, Avery Brundage participated in 1912 in track and field competitions; Jacques Rogge took part in three Olympics (1968, 1972 and 1976) in sailing; Thomas Bach became an Olympic champion in team foil fencing in 1976.
The emblem of the Olympic Movement is five intertwined rings of yellow, green, red, blue, and black. The rings symbolize the unification of the five continents within the Olympic movement.
The Olympic rings. Image: britannica.com
An important symbol of the Olympic Games is the Olympic flame. In the history of the modern Olympics, the first lighting of the Olympic flame took place at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam. The idea of delivering the Olympic flame to the venue was first realized at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, when more than 3,000 runners carried the torch from Olympia to the German capital. The hosts of the Olympic Games sometimes try to invent original ways to deliver the Olympic flame. For example, before the opening of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, the Olympic flame made its first-ever trip around the world.
12-time Olympic medalist Paavo Nurmi lights the Olympic flame in Helsinki in 1952. Photo: Wikipedia
Since the founding of the IOC, the organization's slogan has been "Faster, Higher, Stronger," but in 2021, the slogan was slightly amended. The new version is as follows: "Faster, higher, stronger - together", which should emphasize the unity of the Olympic movement.
The Olympic anthem was first performed at the opening of the first Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. The music was composed by Greek composer Spyros Samaras, and the lyrics were written by poet Kostis Palamas.
The IOC members are not the NOCs of their countries, but individuals chosen by the organization itself. The number of IOC members cannot exceed 115 people. Among them, no more than 70 people can be elected who are not associated with a particular position or type of activity:
Currently, there are 99 members of the IOC. Interestingly, women were first elected as members of the IOC in 1981.
According to the Olympic Charter, the governing bodies of the IOC are the Session, the Executive Board and the President.
The session is the supreme body of the IOC, whose decisions are final. The session gathers all members of the organization. Ordinary sessions are held once a year. The functions of the sessions include the following:
The Executive Committee consists of the president, four vice presidents and ten other members. Vice Presidents and ordinary members of the Committee are elected for 4 years. The Committee is responsible for the administration and management of the day-to-day affairs of the IOC. Among the functions of the Committee are the following:
The President represents the IOC and leads all activities of the organization. He is elected for an 8-year term with the possibility of extension for another 4 years. In 2013, Thomas Bach, a German fencer and sports official, was elected the 9th President of the IOC. In 2021, he was re-elected for a 4-year term.
IOC President Thomas Bach. Photo: Wikipedia
The main activity of the IOC is to organize the Summer and Winter Olympics. It is currently known that the next Summer Olympics will be held in Paris in 2024. They can be attended by 206 national teams and the refugee team, which was first organized at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The 2026 Winter Olympics will be hosted by Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. The IOC is also responsible for organizing the Youth Olympic Games. The first Youth Summer Olympics were held in Singapore in 2010. Two years later, Innsbruck hosted the Winter Olympics. It should be emphasized that the responsibility for hosting each Olympics lies not with the IOC, but with the host city.
The IOC allocates money to support the Olympic movement. In particular, funding is provided to NOCs, individual athletes in the form of scholarships and reimbursement of organizational expenses, and some sports that are unpopular with sponsors.
The IOC is involved in the fight against the use of doping in sports. In 1999, the IOC supported the establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). In 2015, the IOC proposed to transfer doping tests to the Anti-Doping Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, making testing independent of the influence of sports organizations.
The IOC fights against harassment and insults in Olympic sports. For this purpose, the IOC establishes commissions and working groups, and also turns to certain experts depending on the specifics of individual cases. The IOC also conducts webinars and disseminates educational materials to raise awareness of harassment and abuse among the sports community.
The IOC pays considerable attention to education. An online library created by the IOC contains literature and information on the Olympic movement. The Olympic Values Education Program is a series of educational resources created by the IOC, based on Olympic principles and designed to be integrated into the educational process.
The Olympic Learning Center in Lausanne collects all information related to the Olympic Movement. The IOC distributes training videos that provide advice to athletes, their parents and coaches. In particular, a series of four videos called "Hunger for Gold" is aimed at women and talks about the physical challenges that female athletes may face.
The IOC's Medical and Scientific Division focuses on maintaining athletes' health and avoiding injury. The department conducts research in the field of sports medicine, publishes materials, holds conferences and courses involving medical experts, researchers and athletes.
The IOC pays attention to the issue of possible negative impact of the Olympic Games on the environment. Accordingly, each candidate city for hosting the Games must provide the IOC with information on the state of the environment and develop a plan to minimize the negative impact of the competition.
Corruption scandals around the IOC began during the presidency of Juan Antonio Samaranch. It is believed that Samaranch pulled the Olympic movement out of a long crisis by attracting global sponsors to the Olympic competitions. Unfortunately, along with great profits and opportunities came corruption.
In 1992, British journalists Viv Simson and Andrew Jennings published the book "The Olympic Rings: Power, Money and Dope". The book criticized the commercial activities of the IOC and Samaranch personally.
Later, the president of the International Ski Federation, Mark Hodler, said that the Olympics in Atlanta (1996), Nagano (1998), Sydney (2000) and Salt Lake City (2002) were bought with bribes to IOC members. Even under the current IOC President Thomas Bach, The Guardian journalist Owen Gibson reported that the French financial prosecutor's office was investigating corruption related to the selection of the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games hosts.
Several conflicts were related to the fact that China systematically violates human rights and, accordingly, the principles of the Olympic Charter. For example, international human rights organizations and some governments opposed Beijing's bid to host the 2008 and 2022 Olympics. In both cases, the IOC sided with China, and Beijing won.
In 2018, Taiwan launched a referendum to change the name of the NOC from "Chinese Taipei" to "Taiwan," which resulted in threats from China. Interestingly, the IOC joined the threats, promising to withdraw the Taiwanese national team from the 2020 Olympic Games if the name was changed.
Shortly after the Sochi Olympics in 2014, an anti-doping scandal broke out. As a result of the scandal, it was proved that Russia had a state-developed doping program that involved the systematic introduction of banned substances into the bodies of team members, as well as the subsequent substitution of doping test results. Although some Russian athletes were suspended from the next Olympics, the team took part in the Games, and the Russian Olympic Committee and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, guilty of numerous violations, were reinstated.
The NOC of Ukraine was established in 1990 and was finally recognized by the IOC in 1993. The first head of the NOC was former runner Valeriy Borzov. The NOC is currently headed by former pole vaulter Serhiy Bubka. Both officials have been members of the IOC since the late twentieth century. Serhiy Bubka is also a member of the Executive Committee, and from 2000 to 2008 he chaired it.
Since independence, Ukrainian athletes have regularly participated in the Olympic Games and won 148 awards, including 38 gold, as many silver and 72 bronze medals.
In 2014, after the start of Russian aggression, the NOC of Ukraine established a program to provide assistance to athletes and coaches from the temporarily occupied territories of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions. With the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, the IOC imposed sanctions against Russia and Belarus.
The IOC, Olympic Solidarity, and European Olympic Committees jointly established the Solidarity Fund. The financial assistance was aimed, in particular, at evacuating athletes, coaches and their families from the areas of active hostilities, providing shelter and essential services, and general humanitarian assistance in safer areas.
Already in 2023, the IOC released an ambiguous statement that effectively implied that Russian and Belarusian athletes could participate in the next Olympic Games in Paris. This statement provoked a sharp reaction from Ukraine and its allies. In particular, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the Ukrainian president's office, called the IOC "a promoter of war, murder and destruction" on his Twitter account. The Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine Vadym Gutzayt noted on his Facebook page that he did not rule out the possibility of Ukraine boycotting the 2024 Olympics if Russian and Belarusian athletes were allowed to compete.
The IOC has existed for over a hundred years. During this time, the organization has achieved undeniable success. The main one is that the Olympic Games are undoubtedly one of the most spectacular events of our time, with serious video viewing ratings around the world.
It must be stated that the popularity was gained through commercialization, which led to corruption. Today's IOC is a typical commercialized and politicized bureaucratic structure that makes any decision based on the current situation.
Obviously, the officials of this structure are well aware that it is necessary to be friends with the "powers that be." Therefore, for the sake of "useful" friendship, even the beautiful ideals that were laid down in the foundation of the IOC in the late nineteenth century by its founders can be neglected. The IOC is another example of how power and money can turn any high ideas into garbage.
Олег Пархітько