SWIMMING ICON Kirsty Coventry will join hundreds of other delegates in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for crucial International Olympic Committee (IOC) meetings that will see the election of a new president and the selection of the 2020 Olympics host city.
REPORT BY WELLINGTON TONI
The sessions started yesterday with an address by IOC president Jacques Rogge to the executive board and will continue until next Tuesday when the ninth leader of the UN-recognised institution is elected.
Rogge is retiring after 12 years in office.
Coventry is a member of the IOC Athletes Commission having been sworn in on July 3 at an extraordinary session in Singapore.
The seven-time Olympic medallist and two-time champion in the 200m backstroke was one of the four athletes who were elected and sworn in by the IOC’s executive board after an “approval process”.
Coventry, along with Slovakian shooter Danka Bartekova, Australian rower James Tomkins, and French canoer/kayaker Tony Estanguet, were elected into the commission by their peers in London at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Yesterday morning she said on her official Twitter account confirming her trip: “Off to Buenos Aires. 3 key decisions to be made: host city for 2020 Olympics; composition of 2020 Olympic Programme; election of IOC President.”
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On Saturday, the three candidate cities bidding to host the 2020 Olympic Games — Istanbul, Tokyo and Madrid — will deliver their final presentations to the Session before the vote. The host city will be announced during a ceremony between 5 and 5:30pm
The composition of the 2020 Olympic programme will be discussed on the morning of the following day with decisions on the core sports expected at around 10:15am and the possible inclusion of an additional sport at noon.
Baseball/softball, squash and wrestling have been shortlisted and proposed by the IOC Executive Board for possible inclusion as an additional sport on the 2020 Olympic programme. They will deliver short presentations to the Session ahead of the vote.
On Sunday afternoon, the session will hear reports about the preparations for future editions of the Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games. The Organising Committees and respective IOC Co-ordination Commission Chairs for Sochi 2014, Rio 2016, PyeongChang 2018 and for the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing 2014 and in Lillehammer 2016 will update the IOC members about the ongoing work and progress made in the host cities.
On September 9, the IOC Session will receive reports from IOC commissions, the IOC administration, the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the World Anti-Doping Agency.
On the final day of their meeting in Buenos Aires, next Tuesday, the IOC members will elect their new President, the ninth in the history of the Olympic Movement, as well as vote on one new Vice-President, one new member of the IOC Executive Board, and nine proposed new members and honorary members. The six presidential candidates vying to succeed Rogge are Thomas Bach, Sergey Bubka, Richard Carrión, Ser Miang Ng, Denis Oswald, and Ching-Kuo Wu.
