#ICYMI: North Korea Training Site; Rule 40 Ruling; ASOIF Report

(ATR) #ICYMI -- In Case You Missed It ... Sometimes the best stories don't get the attention we think they deserve. Here are our staff picks for articles this week they really want you to know about.

North Korea Secures Tokyo 2020 Training Site

North Korea will hold a pre-Games training camp at Nippon Sport Science University ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Japanese and North Korean sources tellATR Japan.

The NSSU has not officially confirmed the information.

An executive board member of the Tokyo Organizing Committee met Kenshiro Matsunami, the President of Educational Foundation of the NSSU, on Dec. 26 in Tokyo. At that time, the Committee made a proposal to secure a training base for North Korean athletes and the Refugee Olympic Teams during the 2020 Games. Japan currently has no diplomatic relations with North Korea.

The NSSU agreed to invite both teams to their campuses in Tokyo and Yokohama. The university has produced the most Olympic medalists in Japanese history and has high end training facilities and comfortable accommodations on campus.

As ATR previously reportedNSSU President Matsunami, a former member of Japanese Parliament and the vice President of the Japan Wrestling Federation, has already visited Pyongyang four times. On Oct. 24, he met with Kim Il-gook, Sports Minister of North Korea. At that time, the NSSU made a proposal to host North Korea's pre-Games training camp at the campus in 2020.

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German Athletes Win Rule 40 Concessions

Restrictions on athlete promotion during the Olympic Games have been eased in Germany following a ruling by a regulatory office.

The German Federal Cartel Office (FCO – Bundeskartellamt) ruled that the IOC and German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) were subject to local laws, a clear win for German athletes. The decision takes aim at Rule 40 of the IOC Charter, which prevents athletes from allowing their likenesses to be used for advertising during the Olympic Games.

In a statement from an IOC spokesperson the organization said it "takes note of the commitment decision," and welcomed revised social media rules that "will be valid in Germany at least until the end of the Olympic Winter Games 2026".

"With its decision, the FCO recognized that there are legitimate reasons for restricting individual athletes’ advertising opportunities in order to ensure the ongoing organization of the Olympic Games," the IOC spokesperson added. "At the same time, any implementation of Rule 40 at the national level necessarily has to take all applicable laws and regulations as well as pertinent case law into account, in this instance, particular German case law."

Rule 40 says that "except as permitted by the IOC Executive Board, no competitor, coach, trainer or official who participates in the Olympic Games may allow his person, name, picture or sports performances to be used for advertising purposes during the Olympic Games."

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Wake-up Call for Summer Olympic Sports

(ATR) The 33 summer federations are being urged to adapt and innovate or risk losing some of their influence in world sport.

The key findings of a new report launched Thursday by the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations sets out the challenges facing the IFs.

The 46-page Future of Global Sport document lays out a vision for the future of sport over the next 20 years including 10 recommendations for the summer sports and for ASOIF to embrace in order to stay relevant. It says they must be more innovative, entrepreneurial, commercially-driven and collaborative.

ASOIF president Francesco Ricci Bitti told reporters in a conference call that the report was commissioned by the umbrella Olympic sports body to understand the growing economic and social challenges in the landscape of sport and "to better anticipate the threats".

"Some of the outlined future scenarios may serve as a wake-up call. This report invites us all to challenge our thinking at ASOIF and encourage our members to challenge their own," he said.

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