ATR First: Dibos Helped Save Lima IOC Session

(ATR) Ivan Dibos tells Around the Rings he had to convince International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach and Olympic executives to keep the 2017 Session in the Peruvian capital.

An IOC member from Peru for 35 years, Dibos says he had to show that Lima was still capable of hosting the event after floods devastated areas of the country in March.

"Because we had a flood and rains they almost took the Session away from us," he tells ATR in an exclusive interview. "But we made a conference with the IOC and luckily all the EB members were on the line, each in their own country and chaired by Thomas Bach on telephone.

"I was able to talk as the last person and I said, ‘Look, Peru is very big and where the floods were, they took place about two hours flight by jet plane out of Lima’."

He says that he stressed that the capital city was not caught in the torrential downpours and the areas affected were well outside of the city.

"In Lima, nothing happened!" he emphasized. "We didn’t feel it in Lima, it didn’t even rain!"

Dibos says that his speech changed the tune of his fellow IOC members who were calling for the change of scenery.

"Luckily, some members said to me in Lausanne, ‘Ivan, congratulations. You were able to convince us and clear the panorama because we had a different view of it’. So I’m glad I was able to give this to my country which will be very glad to have it."

With the Session now less than one month away, Dibos reassures that the city will be ready to welcome the key stakeholders of the Olympic Movement.

"We will be ready, maybe one minute before it starts but we will be ready for the people," he says. "There are small things that are always left for the last minute, but nobody will know about these."

He also notes there is an IOC contingency currently in Peru to make sure everything is progressing as planned.

"Right now there are about 15 IOC people that are from Switzerland here in Lima and they have been here for about a week," he says, noting his liaison position between the IOC and local organizers. "They are going around everything including security issues we have been looking into."

However, he shared some concern that the Session will have fewer attendees due to the tripartite agreement that gives the 2024 Summer Olympics to Paris and 2028 Games to Los Angeles.

"Maybe the public would have preferred a competition to see who would win [2024 hosting rights] but now people lose interest," he tells ATR. "A lot of journalists will probably not come because it is always expensive to go to another country so some newspapers will not send their journalists anymore.

"So that’s bad for us because when we signed the agreement in Monaco we would have the [2024] host city election including the ones who were retired," he says, noting the 2024 bidding drop outs from Hamburg, Rome and Budapest.

"So yes, the Session will lose some of its interest for the people outside. However, inside the IOC, we still have some important points to take care of. We have a long, long agenda."

Included on the agenda are the official approval of the Olympic tripartite agreement, discussions on changes to the Winter 2026 bidding process, approval of the nine new IOC member candidates and election of two new EB members for which Dibos is competing.

He says he is not confident that he will be chosen for the position against competitors Nicole Hoevertsz, Pal Schmitt, Denis Oswald and Habu Gumel, but that South America could use representation on the board.

"I have to work hard for it and the other candidates are strong, but I would be the only one for South America. The Americas are very large, for example Peru’s extension of 1.8 million kilometers is bigger than five, six or seven European countries together. We haven’t had a South American EB member for some time now."

An IOC member for 35 years, Dibos would have approximately two years and four months to serve on the EB before the age limit of 80 imposed by the IOC would end his potential mandate in 2019.

Dibos tells ATR that the Session is strongly supported by Peruvian President Pablo Kuczynski who will inaugurate the event at its opening ceremony in Peru’s new National Grand Theatre and give the keynote address during the first day of business.

The Session will begin on Sep. 13 at the Lima Convention Center and concludes on Sep. 16, with an Olympism in Action Congress scheduled for Sep. 17-18.

Written by Kevin Nutley

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