- Date
- 12 Aug 2016
- Tags
- IOC News , Host City Election , Sustainability
Changes to Olympic Winter Games promote legacy and sustainability
Building on the successful implementation of Olympic Agenda 2020, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is implementing a series of recommendations that will give Olympic Winter Games candidates and host cities more flexibility to design Games that advance their sustainability and legacy goals.
The six high-level recommendations [link here} and 32 action items address the following aspects of the Olympic Winter Games:
• Venue concept
• Candidature process
• Games organisation
• The positioning of the Olympic Winter Games
• Benefits & Legacy
The changes place an even stronger emphasis on the use of existing, temporary and demountable venues; offer more flexibility for venues outside the host city/region and country; and pledge more support from the IOC and the International Federations earlier in the candidature process.
Another recommendation will lead to the appointment of an independent working group composed of winter sport experts to recommend ways to simplify and reduce Games operational and technical requirements, as well as service levels., The final objective reduce costs and complexity for candidate cities and hosts.
The changes, developed by the 26-member Olympic Winter Games Strategic Review Working Group with input from a wide range of other Winter Games stakeholders, also highlight and celebrate the special attributes of the Olympic Winter Games, and their links to the natural environment and youth-focused events. The recommendations were presented to the IOC Session at its meeting in Rio de Janeiro before the start of the Olympic Games Rio 2016.
“The Olympic Movement’s adoption of these recommendations will make a successful and extremely popular sporting event even better,” said IOC Vice President John Coates, the working group chair. “We will now build on the reforms of the Olympic Agenda 2020 in the special context of the Olympic Winter Games.”
As with the implementation of Olympic Agenda 2020, the IOC will seize any opportunity to apply changes during ongoing preparations for the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 and the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. Full implementation expected by the start of the 2026 candidature process.