ATR First: Summer Federations Chief Not Worried About Double Award

(ATR) Association of Summer Olympic International Federations President Francesco Ricci Bitti tells Around the Rings two great organizers will take care of federations for the 2024 and 2028 Olympics.

Ricci Bitti spoke to ATR on the sidelines of the 2017 World Taekwondo Championships, where he was visiting in his role with ASOIF. He called the event and sport-specific facility in Muju, South Korea "a good model" that other federations could learn from.

"This park is for taekwondo is amazing what they do here," Ricci Bitti said. "[For other] federations, it depends on finding the people that are willing to invest."

Next month the IOC membership will vote on a proposal that could see the next two Summer Olympic Games awarded at the 2017 Session. An Extraordinary IOC Session will be held on July 11-12 in Lausanne to debate and vote on a potential double allocation. The vote could pave way for the IOC to award Los Angeles and Paris a combination of the next two Olympics. Both cities are currently bidding for the 2024 Olympics, but have expressed general optimism over a double allocation plan.

For federations that would mean working with a partner for the next 11 years to plan the 2028 Summer Olympics. As with any Olympic project there are risks during preparations and the longer period created by a double award could increase the chances of problems developing. But Ricci Bitti believes any potential risks will be mitigated by two well respected organizers in Los Angeles and Paris.

Assessing the two bids last month were four International Federation Presidents on the IOC Evaluation Commission. Their opinions should assuage any apprehension federations may have.

"Basically the problem is related to the situation, so the Olympic product is successful financially but obviously we are not so successful now in finding organizers, so this is an issue and it needs to be tackled," Ricci Bitti said. "For the international federation we need to have good organizers, so we are not very worried about Paris and Los Angeles.

"It is not where and how we decide where to go, as this is more related to the governance of the IOC. For the moment the main interest is to have good organizers, and Paris and Los Angeles will surely both be good organizers."

Written by Aaron Bauerin Muju

Travel paid for by World Taekwondo

25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.