Prague, Tokyo for Next Two ANOC General Assemblies

(ATR) Prague and Tokyo will host the next two Association of National Olympic Committees General Assemblies.

Prague will host the flagship event in 2017, with Tokyo hosting in 2018.

Prague will host the 22nd ANOC General Assembly Oct. 30 to Nov. 1 in 2017 at the Hilton Atrium Hotel and convention center. Czech NOC president Jiri Kejval told Around the Rings with more than 1200 delegates expected, the General Assembly will be bigger than the 2003 IOC Session hosted by Prague.

"It means a lot for the NOC because never before have all 205 NOCs and sport leaders met in Prague. We look forward to preparing to show Prague in the best light," Kejval said. "Prague is a great example of the great historical city that has a modern soul and I’m 100 percent sure the ANOC family will discover the beauty of Prague."

Returning to Tokyo continues the tradition of ANOC hosting its General Assembly in an upcoming Summer Olympic host city. ANOC had traditionally traveled to the host city in the months before the Olympics, but recent events eschewed this.

ANOC secretary general Gunilla Lindberg told ATR the executive council felt it was more appropriate to return two years before the Games to prevent conflicts. ANOC had planned to hold its General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro five months before the 2016 Olympics, but scheduling conflicts made hosting the event impossible.

"We will be in Tokyo two years before the Games, which we think is much better for the organizing committee," Lindberg said. "We will know enough about where the venues will be, but they will not be in the final preparations for the Games.

"We went to Bangkok in 2014, then we went to Washington and now we’ll be in Doha. We’ll go back to Prague in Europe and then we’ll go to Tokyo. It is like the Games, we want a rotation of the continents."

The 2016 General Assembly was moved to Doha, Qatar as a result of the Rio Olympics. The 21st General Assembly concluded Wednesday with an open discussion about the doping crisis in international sport led by WADA president Craig Reedie.

Following his report, Reedie, ANOC president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah and IOC president Thomas Bach fielded questions from the NOC delegates about what can be done to further protect clean athletes.

The ANOC assembly resolved to support the declarations of the recent Olympic Summit to reform the anti-doping system and make it completely independent from international sporting organizations.

Day two of the assembly also featured reports from organizers of past and future Olympic Games.

Rio 2016 president Carlos Nuzman spoke of the successes of Rio in his final presentation about the Summer Games in Brazil. He delivered a 15-minute speech thanking the NOCs for their support and the athletes for making "the marvelous Games".

"Miracles, challenges and success are words that defined the Games, but I prefer thank you, two words that explains what happened in the summer," Nuzman said to the NOCs. "What the world saw in Brazil was the result of all of us working together, united as a family, doing our best for the youth, the athletes, and the sports."

PyeongChang 2018 president Hee Beom Lee promised to provide a festival atmosphere in the next edition of the Games in South Korea. Lee says the Winter Olympic organizers will seek to provide enjoyable moments every day throughout the 17-day program.

Tokyo 2020 organizers laid out its venue plan with a Heritage Zone featuring stadiums from the Tokyo 1964 Olympics and a Tokyo Bay zone with newer facilities. Tokyo 2020 will begin welcoming NOCs to visit Japan on December 5. NOCs that come to the open visit will be given an extensive tour of the venues in Tokyo.

Beijing 2022 told the ANOC members that preparations are already well underway for its edition of the Winter Olympics. The organizing committee is nearing the one-year anniversary of its formation and already has 175 employees. The OCOG is already hard at work developing its venue plan and says all of its venues will be ready two-years ahead of the Games in 2020.

ANOC delegates then heard reports from organizers of the Lillehammer 2016, Buenos Aires 2018 and Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Games as well as the nine ANOC Commissions that held meetings on Monday.

The annual gathering of Olympic leaders will conclude with the continental association meetings of the Americas and Africa. PASO is likely to give final approval to its statute changes while ANOCA will hold an extraordinary general assembly.

Written by Aaron Bauer and Ed Hula and Kevin Nutleyin Doha

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