Eurlings: IOC Should Bring Olympics 'Down to Earth'

(ATR) International Olympic Committee communications commission chairman Camiel Eurlings says more flexibility by the IOC will lead to more Olympic bid cities, particularly for the upcoming 2026 Winter Games.

"We have to bring the games more down to earth than ever before," Eurlings told Around the Rings on the sidelines of the Sportel Monaco convention. "The Agenda 2020 is the right way to go on, but we have to push on, and find new reforms in the same direction to go further than we ever thought.

"The aim is to possibly adapt the Games to the hosting City and hosting country," he added. "Let’s hope we can motivate a part of Sion, motivate other good candidates to come up, so, that we will have a bunch of candidates for 2026."

The race for the 2026 Games has already suffered a casualty with Innsbruck losing a referendum two Sundays ago. Eurlings says the defeat of Innsbruck’s bid should motivate the IOC to seek greater reforms.

"Of course, I am disappointed with the outcome of the referendum," he said. "It should only motivate the IOC, all of us, more to boldly push on reforms.

"It should be possible for countries like the Netherlands to organize Olympic Games," he said, referring to his home country where he is an IOC member.

"Not just Winter Games like in Switzerland or Austria, but even the bigger Summer Games. The Games should come more cost efficient, and we should more than ever before not adapt the host country to the Games, but adapt the Games to the hosting country."

The IOC began a new one-year dialogue phase with potential 2026 hosts last week which concludes in October 2018 with the official candidature phase. The IOC hopes to have several cities still in the race by being more proactive in its approach towards host cities. Sion, Switzerland, Stockholm, Calgary, Sapporo and Salt Lake City have all expressed initial interest in hosting the 20216 Winter Games.

He says that successfully implementing these bidding reforms could be one step towards improving the credibility and image of the IOC.

"People these days, they love sports, but they don’t want to spend billions of taxpayer money into Games," he told ATR. "That is why Agenda 2020 is so important.

"We are a world organization; the IOC is for every country and we should increase the number of countries that can deliver a successful bid. It means that we have to be more flexible than ever."

The IOC is also dealing with the doping scandal that kept Russian athletes out of the Rio 2016 Olympics and Paralympics. Eurlings hopes the IOC will determine whether Russia can participate in PyeongChang 2018 well before the Games begin next February.

"We at all cost have to prevent a situation like in Rio," he said. "We cannot have again a few days before the Games a discussion of who to allow and not to allow. It is a situation no one wants to be in.

He remains confident the two IOC commissions of Denis Oswald and Samuel Schmid will conclude their work before the IOC Executive Board meeting in December and that a decision will swiftly follow.

"To me this is important, that we really draw a conclusion this year and not a few days before the Games," he reiterated. "This year get it over with, and to all the athletes in the world show we will safeguard honest and equal Games."

With reporting at Sportel Monaco by Heinz Peter Kreuzer. Written by Kevin Nutley

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