On the Scene in Lisbon -- IOC Members Lose EOC Votes; Nuzman Charts Rio Journey

The European Olympic Committees assembly wrapped up Saturday in Lisbon. Belgrade will host the 2010 meeting. (ATR/Panasonic:Lumix) (ATR) Two IOC members lose their seats on the European Olympic Committees executive committee.

Guy Drut of France and Greece’s Lambis Nikolaou failed to retain their places at the EOC top table in elections at the congress in Lisbon. It is the first time for many years that France has not been represented on the committee; Drut was on the board for eight years. Nikolaou leaves the executive after a 12-year stint.

Denmark’s Kai Holm, who retired as an IOC member last month, was also not re-elected at the EOC meeting.

Nineteen candidates stood for the 12 places on the executive. The exec-comm for the 2009-2013 cycle includes EOC president Patrick Hickey, vice president Alexander Kozlovsky, secretary general Raffaele Pagnozzi, treasurer Kikis Lazarides.

Members are: Togay Bayatli, Alejandro Blanco, Spyros Capralos, Guido de Bondt, Janez Kocijancic, Zlatko Matesa, Octavian Morariu, Colin Moynihan, Piotr Nurowski, Klaus Steinbach, Marc Theisen and Efraim Zinger.

Moynihan, elected chair of the British Olympic Association in 2005, told ATR his presence on the committee would be useful in London 2012’s preparations for the Olympics. He also sits on London’s Olympic Board alongside LOCOG chair Sebastian Coe, Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell and London Mayor Boris Johnson.

“It is good for all of us at the BOA. This is a great result for the team,” he said.

The first meeting of the new-look EOC executive committee is in Rome on Jan. 22.

Tributes for Troeger and Serandour

Walter Troeger, IOC member from Germany, was awarded the EOC Order of Merit at the general assembly in Lisbon.

Last year’s award went to Henri Serandour, the former IOC member and French NOC president who died earlier this month. Guy Drut of France was one of two IOC members losing elections to remain on the EOC executive; Lambas Nikolaou of Greece was the other.(ATR/Panasonic:Lumix)

Members of the congress, including representatives from the EOC’s 49 NOCs, observed a moment’s silence to honor Serandour.

Hickey paid tribute: “I think everybody will know him for the gentleman that he was. He will be sorely missed.”

Denis Masseglia replaced Serandour as leader of the French NOC earlier this year.

Nuzman Charts 2016 Journey

Carlos Nuzman, president of the Brazilian NOC and head of the Rio 2016 organizing committee, gave some fascinating insights into the bid process that resulted in the IOC awarding the Olympics to the city last month.

Nuzman said he had traveled 500,000 miles and chalked up around 1,000 flying hours in the two-year bid campaign. He traced Rio’s success back to 1999 when the Brazilian NOC decided not to bid for the 2008 Games but instead to vie for the 2007 Pan American Games, which they secured in 2002.

In his ‘Pathway to the Olympics’ speech, he remarked on how the 2007 Pan-Ams were the stepping stone for the successful 2016 bid campaign.

Underlining the scope of work involved, he said a comprehensive approach had been taken to more than 300 detailed technical issues in the bid book. The 568-page dossier was divided into three volumes; total volume of bid books delivered to the IOC was 700kg, he added.

Nuzman emphasized the importance of using top consultants but no lobbyists. He said the Rio delegation’s presence at all continental assemblies was crucial as was the participation of the three levels of Brazil’s government.

He made special mention of the Bid Cities Briefing in June, an IOC first for any Olympic bid race. He said Rio’s bid had emerged stronger from the experience following briefings to the 90 IOC members who attended.

Nuzman’s EOC address sent a message to representatives of the 2018 Olympic applicant cities – Annecy, Munich and Pyeongchang – of the hard work that lies ahead for them in their 20-month campaign to land the Winter Games.

EOC and European Union Relations

The EOC hopes to have more influence on EU policy through the new EU commissioner for sport, Androulla Vassiliou of Cyprus. Her husband is a former EOC President Patrick Hickey at a press conference in Lisbon. (ATR/Panasonic:Lumix)president of the Cypriot NOC.

Jose Manuel Barrosa, president of the EU Commission, appointed Vassiliou to the post on Friday. Her mandate is until 2014. She replaces Maros Sefcovic, who held the position following Jan Figel’s departure two months ago.

Hickey told delegates at the congress that the EOC/EU office that opened in Brussels in January was doing an “excellent job” in lobbying on behalf of the 49 NOCs “while keeping track of the EU’s emerging strategies on sport”.

His comments come in the wake of the IOC and EOC succeeding in obtaining the inclusion of an article on the nature of sport in the Lisbon Treaty. It means sport has a legal base within the EU which, Hickey said, would “greatly facilitate our dealings with the commission”. The IOC has battled hard to protect the autonomy of sport in the face of various cases of government interference in recent years, and this is seen as a step in the right direction.

WADA Code Compliance

Gunilla Lindberg, secretary general of the Association of National Olympic Committees, told delegates that 100 more NOCs were now in compliance with the World Anti-Doping Agency’s new code that came into force in January.

Of the 205 NOCs worldwide, 170 are now code compliant.

But she warned the five unnamed European NOCs who are not in step with WADA’s code that they would not be able to send athletes to the Vancouver Olympics unless they conformed.

Kelly Fairweather, director of WADA’s European office, told ATR: “It is going to happen in the next couple of weeks. There are only minor things needed, nothing major.”

Belgrade Hosts 2010 Meeting

The 39th European Olympic Committees general assembly will take place in Belgrade, Serbia in November 2010, it was announced at the congress.

Sochi, the Russian host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics, hopes to host the 2011 congress. Dmitry Chernyshenko, president and CEO of the Sochi organizing committee, appealed to EOC leaders to bring the conference to the Black Sea resort in his update on Games preparations. No decision has been made yet.

With reporting from Mark Bisson