U.S. Misses Lausanne Meeting; German NOC Farewell for Troeger; Rwanda Vote

NOC Leaders, Minus U.S., in Lausanne

When two dozen National Olympic Committee leaders gather around a conference table in Lausanne Tuesday and Wednesday, they will do so for the first time in years without a representative from the U.S. Olympic Committee.

The executive council of the Association of National Olympic Committees meets for its annual session at IOC headquarters Dec. 8, followed by a joint meeting the morning of Dec. 9 with the IOC Executive Board.

The council is comprised of the five continental association presidents and another 20 members selected by the continental groups. Ex-USOC vice president Robert Ctvrtlik is still listed as among the four from the Americas, but he’s not going – nor is anyone from Colorado Springs.

A comment from the USOC to Around the Rings attributes the absence of a U.S. delegate to the “transition” the organization is undergoing until a new chief executive officer is hired, possibly this month.

"While no one from the USOC will be in attendance at this specific meeting, as it coincides with a transition period for the USOC as we finalize hiring a new CEO, we plan to have someone at future meetings and to be fully engaged at ANOC, as in the past,” said USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky.

There’s been no reply to an email request for comment from ANOC President Mario Vazquez Rana about the U.S. situation and whether the invitation was extended for a proxy representative for Ctvrtlik.

The USOC is engaged in a search for a new CEO that is supposed to be completed this month. USOC chairman Larry Probst has said the new CEO will play a key international role for the committee. More than two-dozen candidates are said to be on the “short list”. As with the hiring of any new CEO at a business, organizational and personnel changes frequently follow, perhaps affecting the USOC international relations department.

Probst did attend part of the Pan American Sports Organization general assembly last month and was invited to join the PASO executive committee. He had to wait outside the meeting room while the PASO committee approved his place at the table; Ctvrtlik’s name card was still on the table for the start of the meeting in Gudalajara.

Neither Ctvrtlik nor the USOC have offered any explanation for the rupture that abruptly ended his three-year role as the official delegate of the USOC at ANOC and other bodies in the Olympic Movement. He quietly resigned his post in July as USOC vice president international so that he could accept a paid position with Chicago 2016 in the final months of the campaign.

Since the demise of the Chicago bid, Ctvrtlik appears to have been shunted aside by the USOC, not invited to help with the PASO meeting nor with this week’s ANOC Council in Lausanne. A source tells ATR that Probst and Ctvrtlik have yet to meet since the loss of Chicago on Oct.2, despite Ctvrtlik’s lengthy tenure internationally for the U.S.

Fifth German Olympic Committee Assembly

The fifth meeting of the German Olympic Sports Union (DOSB) took place in Dusselbach on Saturday. At the meeting the DOSB awarded Olympic champion in mountain bike Sabine Spitz the IOC Trophy. Spitz was given the award for her work to fight doping. The meeting was also the last one for Walther Troeger as honorary DOSB president. Troger turned 80 and under IOC rules , drops out of the organization and the role as honorary president.

DOSB chief Thomas Bach said the German team is prepared for the Olympics in Vancouver.

Bach said the ultimate goal of the DOSB was winning the right to stage the 2018 Olympics in Munich.

New Rwandan NOC President

A contentious, months-long election for president of the Rwandan NOC that forced the IOC to get involved ended Saturday when Charles Rudakubana defeated former Sports Minister Robert Bayigamba.

Rudakubana replaces interim president Aimable Bayingana, who took the position after the government dissolved the executive committee lead by Ignace Beraho. According to media reports, Beraho was sacked “for insubordination and stubbornly refusing to relinquish power.” However, the government’s actions prompted the IOC to intervene, fearing the RNOC’s sovereignty may have been compromised.

Parfait Busabizwa is the new secretary general. Busabizwa and Rudakubana will take office on Saturday.

Papua New Guinea Challenges Constitutionality of ONOC Elections

Oceania National Olympic Committees president Robin Mitchell tells Around the Rings he will refrain from commenting on the constitutionality of the elections until he returns to Fiji next week.

According to a media report, the Papua New Guinea Olympic Committee is challenging the constitutionality of the April executive board elections of the ONOC. Mitchell said he does not have the results of the election with him Lausanne so he is unable to review the complaint.

PNGOC secretary general John Dawanincura said the elections were “null and void” in a letter circulated to ONOC’s delegates, because countries ineligible to vote, did cast votes in the election.

US Olympic Medals for Vancouver

The USOC approved two medals for sale to commemorate the Vancouver Olympics.

The gold-plated medal features the Statue of Liberty superimposed on a maple leaf, a symbol of Canada, while the silver medal features an Inukshuk, the symbol of the 2010 Olympics.

Written by Ed Hula III.