New Libyan Olympic Committee Forming -- The Insider Report

(ATR) A new president and an IOC "road map for the future" will guide the NOC of Libya into the post-Gaddafi era Around the Rings has learned.

"The Libyan NOC is doing well and moving forward with the close support of the National Transitional Council and the IOC," Marwan Maghur, secretary general of the Libyan National Olympic Committee tells ATR in an email.

Maghursays that among the changes comes a new president. Nabil Alalem, head of the Libyan Judo Federation now serves as the Olympic committee president.

Mohammad, son of the dictator, had served as NOC president. However, since the Gaddafi government fell, the NOC had not had contact with its former president, who fled to Algeria.

Alalem’s election took place at a recent extraordinary general assembly.

At the assembly, Maghur says "a road map for the future" was adopted and "implementation is taking place".

According to the IOC road map, detailed in a letter to the Libyan committee earlier this month from the IOC’s Pere Miro, "the IOC is willing to accompany and assist the Libyan NOC in considering the necessary transition and reforms at all levels of the Olympic Movement in Libya," he says.

Miro says the IOC aims to preserve "the continuity of the Libyan NOC, as an organisation and a legal entity recognised by the IOC since 1963, and as much as possible protecting and preserving the Libyan athletes, in particular for their preparation for and participationin the London 2012 Olympic Games."

The IOC letter says that a general assembly must be held within six months after the end of the London Olympics to fully elect the membership of a new NOC.

In the past few months, Libyan athletes participated in the All Africa Games, where they competed under their new flag. Libya qualified for the Confederation of African Football tournament giving the country some additional reason to rejoice.

Maghur says the NOC continues to plan for the upcoming Arab Games in December and the 2012 Olympics.

"The Libyan NOC was very active in providing humanitarian and relief missions in different areas of need in the country" since Gadaffi’s fall, Maghur said, adding "sporting activities and duties were met."

Another area of expected change for the Libyan NOC is its name. Officially, it is dubbed Libyan Jamahiriya Olympic Committee. Jamahiriya means "State of the masses" and was attached to all official bodies by Gadaffi as part of his "socialist Arab republic".

Also ahead: striking the name of the younger Moammar Gaddafi from the listings of the IOC and other sports organizations.

Besides the election of a new NOC president, Maghur says the recent general assembly featured a symbolic moment.

"Most important was raising the Libya Independence flag," Maghur tells ATR.

The flag, a tricolor of red, black and green with white star and crescent replaced the all-green flag used by Gaddafi.

Written and reported by Ed Hula III.

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