The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

INTERNATIONAL Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach issued his first statement to the Olympic Movement on the social, economic, and political impact of the organisation in a post coronavirus world.

Bach said the Olympic Movement across the globe will have to approach sport with a renewed perspective as the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We will all need to take a close look at the scope of some of our activities and make the necessary adjustments to the new realities. In this context, the IOC administration is reviewing the IOC’s budget and priorities. This review will shortly be presented to the IOC Executive Board for discussion and approval,” he said, “The motto when we launched Olympic Agenda 2020, and which is written on the wall at Olympic House: “Change or be changed”, is in this crisis-time more relevant than ever. As challenging and difficult as the circumstances may appear right now, if we draw the right lessons from the current situation, we can shape our future to even strengthen the relevance of our Olympic Movement in the world. Therefore we should drive further the reforms of Olympic Agenda 2020, in particular with regard to sustainability, in order to address this crisis.”

He cited E-Sports as one of the possible avenues for member federations to consider as sports looks to become a unifying platform.

“We can highlight the significance of sport for inclusivity and integration. Sometimes, sport is the only activity that unites people regardless of their social, political, religious or cultural background. Sport is the glue bonding a society together. Such inclusivity is even more important in otherwise deeply divided societies,” he said, “We shall also have to consider what social distancing may mean for our relations with e-sports. Whilst maintaining our principles by respecting the “red line” with regard to the Olympic values, we encourage all our stakeholders even more urgently to “consider how to govern electronic and virtual forms of their sport and explore opportunities with game publishers”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, The Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Government of Japan decided on 23 July - 8 August 2021 for the Tokyo Games. A new date has also been set for the Paralympic Games, 24 August - 5 September 2021.

“The joint Task Force with the symbolic name “Here we Go” is already working at full speed in a highly professional way. It has established the priorities and management strategies to make these postponed Olympic Games feasible and successful. These priorities include first of all to create a safe environment with regard to health for all participants. Here, we can continue to rely on the advice of the World Health Organisation (WHO) concerning potential adaptations to the organisation of mass gatherings. With regard to feasibility, the IOC has provided a wide-ranging catalogue of cost-saving measures to the joint Task Force,” he said “However, for most sports events, as for all sectors of society, things will not be as they were before. This is why the IOC should further strengthen the sustainability and feasibility reforms of Olympic Agenda 2020 with a new phase of the “New Norm” to make even more savings possible for the Organising Committees of the Olympic Games.”

Stakeholders have set the end of May as the deadline to plan the proposed games moving forward.

“By following this strategy, we have the unique opportunity to turn the celebration of the postponed Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 into a festival of unity for humankind, and a symbol of human resilience to overcome this coronavirus crisis. Imagine what a powerful signal of hope these Olympic Games will be for the world during these unprecedented times. The Olympic flame can be the light at the end of the dark tunnel that humankind currently finds itself in,” Bach said, “Already the Ancient Greeks, to whom we owe the Olympic Games, knew that with every crisis comes an opportunity. Let us take this opportunity in a way of unity and creativity to emerge from this crisis even stronger than before. The post-coronavirus world will need sport, and we are ready to contribute to shaping it with our Olympic values.”