(ATR) The IOC is stepping up its engagement with the summer international federations to maximize their event teams’ expertise in delivery of the Paris 2024 Games.
IOC sports director Kit McConnell told a press conference in Lausanne last week that Olympic committee officials would be meeting with the 33 summer sports in the coming weeks to ensure the IFs are fully conversant with "what the New Norm is".
The IOC released the set of 118 reforms in February, saying they would "reimagine how the Games are delivered".The package of measures aims to slash costs and increase flexibility. "The plan invites opportunities to reduce venue sizes, rethink transport options, optimise existing infrastructure and reuse the field of play for various sports," the IOC said in a statement in February.
McConnell said the idea of holding talks with the IFs was to inform them how, in partnership with the IOC, they can make use of the ‘New Norm’ measures for Paris 2024 "in a practical way", looking at areas including the delivery model and venue planning.
"We want to use the specific experience from IFs to see how we can find savings on costs and improve the delivery of sports in Paris," he told reporters last week.
The IOC tells Around the Rings that the meetings of Paris 2024 organizers, Olympic committee officials and IF representatives have already started "and we have committed to meet as many of the international federations before the IOC Session in October".
The meetings will continue throughout the next year "as the wider planning for Paris 2024 progresses", the IOC spokesman said.
"The meetings are with IFs individually, however wherever it is necessary or more productive to have more IFs we are open to do so," the IOC spokesman said, pointing to the possibility of larger gatherings of federations and the IOC in future months.
The IOC Olympic Games department led by Christophe Dubi and the sports department led by McConnell are represented at each of the meetings.
The IOC said the goal of the meetings was "to kick-off discussions on the opportunities offered by the ‘New Norm’ and to identify specific points that we could optimize for each of the sport/disciplines for the upcoming Olympic Games editions and in particular Paris 2024".
Andrew Ryan, executive director of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) welcomed closer ties between the IOC, Games organizers and federations.
He told ATR there was some confusion among IFs about how the ‘New Norm’ measures applied.
"They [the IOC] need to consolidate what it means for each IF," he said.
"A lot of the IFs can help in getting the [Olympic] costs down by applying what they do with world championships to get their costs down."
Homepage photo: IOC
Reported by Mark Bisson
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