IOC Meets in Lausanne

(ATR) Just as the 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games open in Lausanne this week, the IOC is prepared to make a no-fuss vote over a host for 2024.

PyeongChang, site of the 2018 Winter Olympics, is the only candidate. Given the Korean ski resort’s pedigree from 2018, little needs to be done in the way of venues or other facilities required for the winter YOG.

Meeting for a one-day IOC Session in Lausanne, members will vote just before lunch on Jan. 10 whether to confirm PyeongChang. The selection process is the first to be carried out under the guidance of the new Future Host Commission for the Winter Olympic Games headed by Romanian IOC member Octavian Morariu. There seems to be every expectation that the bid from South Korea will be approved.

The IOC Session, number 135, is the first of two this year. The second is set for Tokyo on the eve of the Summer Games.

The agenda includes reports on Tokyo, Lausanne 2020 and Dakar, 2022 YOG host.

There will also be updates on suspended Olympic boxing federation AIBA and a report from the IOC Ethics Commission.

Election of three new members will come at the end of the meeting. Nominated to join are federation presidents, Gianni Infantino of FIFA and David Haggerty from the International Tennis Federation. Nominated from Japan is NOC President Yasuhiro Yamashita. With their election IOC membership will number 101.

The IOC Executive Board holds a one day meeting Jan. 8. Joining the board is Nawal El Moutawakel, who serves the remaining months of the term of Willi Kaltschmitt, who retired in 2019.

The Lausanne IOC meetings will last through next week and include all of the major commissions on which IOC members serve. In a bid to save time, money and resources, the IOC moved so-called "commission week" from November to the next week in Lausanne while the YOG was underway.

Reported by Ed Hula.