Ethics Cases Open IOC Meetings in Lausanne

(ATR) IOC ethics chiefs are expected to consider the case of Tsunekazu Takeda on Tuesday amid a probe by French prosecutors into corruption allegations linked to Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic bid.

The panel hearing kicks off two days of IOC Executive Board meetings in Lausanne.

The IOC marketing chief and Japanese Olympic Committee president announced last week that he was quitting his JOC role and relinquishing his IOC membership in June over the cash-for-votes scandal that has blackened his name and tarnished Tokyo’s Olympic preparations.

Prosecutors allege that Takeda signed off on a $2 million payment to Singaporean consultancy Black Tidings ahead of the 2013 IOC host city vote. The firm was linked to Papa Massata Diack, son of disgraced former IAAF president and IOC member Lamine Diack, who faces multiple allegations of corruption.

The IOC's ethics commission has opened an ethics file on Takeda, who denies any wrongdoing. Members of the commission, chaired by Ban Ki-Moon, former U.N. secretary general, meet on Tuesday to hear Takeda’s case. It’s not known if the JOC president will be there in person.

Ethics chiefs are also set to progress the investigation into Sheikh Ahmad’s case.

Last November, Ahmad stepped aside from his IOC roles pending the outcome of an ethics probe into a forgery case brought against him in Switzerland. Yet earlier this month he was re-elected president of the Olympic Council of Asia for an eighth term, cementing his position as one of the most influential Olympic powerbrokers. The day before, his name was cleared for nomination by the OCA ethics committee allowing him to run unopposed.

IOC president Thomas Bach will doubtless field questions about the ethics cases at his Wednesday press conference at the Palace Hotel in Lausanne. The IOC Executive Board opens Tuesday and wraps on Thursday lunchtime.

Heads of the summer and winter Olympic federations umbrella bodies and world NOCs governing body will also present their reports to the IOC board.

On Wednesday, the leaders of the next two Olympics in Tokyo and Beijing will update the IOC’s ruling body. So too will the organizing committees of next year’s 2020 Youth Olympics in Lausanne and the 2022 edition in Dakar, Senegal.

Much of Wednesday afternoon is devoted to discussions on preparations for the Paris 2024 Olympics. A report will be given by Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet and chair of the coordination commission Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant.

Most critical for Paris 2024 will be receiving the backing of the IOC’s top table for the four proposed sports Games organizers have chosen to add to their Olympic program. Paris 2024 wants to include breaking (breakdancing), surfing, sport climbing and skateboarding. If Bach’s IOC rulers support the choices, they will be ratified at the IOC Session in June.

Approval is expectedfor proposals made by North and South Korea to jointly participate in next year’s Tokyo Olympics.

For AIBA, the international boxing federation, Thursday will be a big day.

An interim report will be delivered by the IOC’s ad-hoc committee assessing the federation’s governance, finance, judging and doping. The report from the committee, chaired by IOC member and United World Wrestling president Nenad Lalovic, will form the basis of a decision on whether to exclude the federation from the Tokyo Olympics.

Late last week, AIBA president Gafur Rakhimov announced he was resigning in the interests of the sport.Moroccan Mohamed Moustahsane was selected over the weekend as interim president of the embattled federation.

The final decision on boxing’s Olympic status is expected to be made at the IOC Session in Lausanne in June.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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